The sweet smell of success

There is a kind of time distortion that happens this time of year for parents whose students are graduating from high school. After years of slowly building up to it, there's often a sense that it's all happening too fast.

In many homes, there are parties to plan and relatives to accommodate. Students somehow stay focused on the last grueling weeks of school and final exams, while plans of summer activities, travel, jobs or college are also on their minds. There's a lot of energy involved in these final days of school and much of it is emotional for parents who are about to let go of their sons and daughters.

So many distractions, so much to do.

Profiles in the Inter Lake this week remind us what an investment some students make in completing their education. These have not been the kind of students who can take for granted from birth that a cap and gown will be in their future. These are teenagers whose own attitudes or parents or circumstances or health were obstacles to getting through school at all.

It's hard to imagine being a kid who has to shepherd younger siblings through their lives, but there are indeed students who get up in the morning, make sure their younger brothers and sisters are fed and dressed and ready for the bus before they can get themselves to another day of school.

There are students who dig themselves such an academic hole that climbing out would be daunting for any adult to attempt. Some, with no support from home and others who are wise enough to lean on those who can help, manage to reset their priorities in time and do succeed.

Their stories aren't a thin plot line for the Lifetime movie channel. They are the everyday challenges of students who have to take responsibility for themselves long before adulthood.

There is so much to celebrate at graduation: Students who make their way through high school with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. Students who define being well-rounded by participating in sports and music and civic work and the myriad other opportunities our schools provide. Students who show up at school every day, no matter how hard that is in the scheme of their complicated lives, and become the first in their families to earn a diploma.

Success comes in a multitude of flavors. Saturday, hundreds of students across the valley will celebrate theirs, and the taste, for every one, should be very sweet.