“The kids today just do not behave and act like they did when I was growing up.” How often we hear these words spoken today. When you read a newspaper, they only tell of the bad things that are happening in our schools.

This is brought to mind around this time of the year because of all the graduations occurring. We see pictures of the long lines of graduates walking up to get their diplomas. On the same page we read articles of how this graduate lost his life at 3 AM in a car accident. This boy died of a drug overdose the night before he was to receive his BS degree from the local college. Two forms of changes on the same page.

My granddaughter sent me a year book from her high school in Connecticut that put a change on my thinking. This was a regular bound book with articles put there by each of the students in her freshman class. The articles have changed my thinking of young people forever.

Some of the students wrote in poetry style and other wrote in prose. A male student talked of his older brother going off to fight in Iraq. He said how sad he felt to see him go possibly never to return. He told of the many happy times they had while they were both growing up. He mentioned the fights they had and how they were resolved. When he saw his brother board the bus he was moved to tears. This was all explained in prose for all his peers to read. It was accompanied by a picture of a young man with a very intelligent, serious face.

There were poems from boys and girls with their imaginations running wild as they lay ready to fall asleep. It illustrated what dreams they had of their future. It told of what they were involved in presently and their hopes of what they would lead to in some future time.

The minds of these young growing teenagers were not filled with the sex and drugs that were all around them on TV and the newspaper. Their minds were wandering into the future of the lives yet to be. They talked of their friends and associates with the every day interactions. It mentioned of mistakes made and how they were affected by the mistakes. What they were doing to correct them.

It was sad to think of the heartbreak ahead of these young people chafing at the harness of youth, seemingly ready and willing to advance to the next step in life. It also made me happy to see that all is not lost. The next generation is coming full tilt down the runway of life to make its own mark just as we did many years before.