Western High School - Westerner Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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XIR, N.X'I'II.VXNIl'II, X, DXNUNYSKN 11

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Wllaply I Think on Theew CShakespeare's 29th Sonnetj Shakespeare sometimes wrote like a cub reporter on THE WESTERNER or The Breeze. He disregarded objectivity and, with poetical license, colored his com- position with the tincture of his own feeling and personality. This was particularly true in his twenty-ninth sonnet. With heart bowed down in abject and envious self-pity, he, near the end of the doleful recital, Haply thinks on thee. Immediately the sun rises, and a new note of hope is heard. He puts aside his thoughts of grief and envy and, his spirits mounting like the lark, sings at heaven's gate. Westerners, like the poet, wherever they congregate, on land or sea, allow their thoughts to drift back to Western. f'Haply I think on thee. Why? One reason was supplied by a distinguished caller last fall. During his visit, he happened to step into the lobby during the interval before 9:25. Everywhere were groups engaging in smiling, happy, animated conversation. 'Democracy at work, commented the visitor. 'The buoyant optimism of youth given a perfect opportunity in a great school for personal friendship and satisfactory achievement. He analyzed the situation perfectly. As you-and now I address the Seniors particularly-leave Western, you will look back upon your experiences in the classroom, on the drill and athletic Helds, in the clubs, and at the social events with pleasure tinged with sadness. And I am sure that you, as did our distinguished visitor, also will recognize the full value of the daily social periods. It is in the free periods that friendships are made and school opinion created. It is then that the optimism of youth rallies to the challenge of democracy. It is their that some of the big things that will be done by Westerners in the future have been begun. And, as you finish your training and go out to invest your lives in a world that bids high for excellence, every Westerner will be pulling for YOU. In a fair field with no favors, every Westerner will rejoice at YOUR success. Because, in the democracy of Western, every man is big enough to rejoice if some one else is bigger. And that is the reason why the real alumni of Western everywhere, when they take time out of their busy, work-a-day world to hark back to Western and their school days, say, with Shakespeare, Haply I think on thee. May that spirit never change, but grow stronger through the years! N. A. DANOWSKY I0

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Here we stand . . . Western's youth of today, representing the spirit of America. Through our cherished plans and traditions, we have followed in the footsteps of our predecessors, we work as you worlced, we laughingly while away the hours as you did in the past . . . And yet, in the year that has just gone, Westerners have been con- scious of a new freedom that was not present during our years of war, a sense of steadiness, yet of relief. Witlr prayers in our hearts and new hope for the future, we give you the Western that has been and is to bein the story of 1946 . . . STIIBY 0F THE YEAR