Front Porch: Each year graduates offer a ray of hope for the future

Every year, this newspaper runs a special issue featuring stories about students graduating from the region’s high schools. It’s coming up on that time again, and I am again happy to be part of the process.

I interviewed and have written features about a number of students from high schools in North Idaho.

And, as happens each year, the process has been so invigorating and renewing that it again filled me with hope and optimism for the generation coming of age.

If ever there was a time to encounter a group of bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed young people, this has been it.

Every generation has its obstacles to face, of course, but it’s wonderful to be reminded that, because of or despite those obstacles, there are rays of sunshine all around us … a lot of which is embodied among those about to depart their teens and their high schools and head out into adulthood.

The Spokesman-Review asks the region’s schools to nominate a senior to be featured – not necessarily the stars of their class (although that’s fine, too), but rather students with their own special achievements and personal stories to tell.

In the many years that I’ve been meeting these young people, I have been so impressed with all of them … and with the variety of experiences in life that they’ve had, some of which have been pretty tough.

I remember one success story, a young lady who was adopted out of an orphanage in Eastern Europe when she was about 7, where she responded to most situations with her fists, and what a transition it was being swept into a new family that embraced her, in a country she didn’t understand and using a language she didn’t speak. One year I met a transgender student in an alternative school, trying to find her way and determined to have that diploma in hand as she continues her journey, and doing so in a class in which she was the only person of color.

I’ll not forget another student, who worked full time, went to school full time, took care of her younger siblings and tried to help her mother stay on the straight and narrow. She was mother to them all since junior high. And she graduated from high school with her associate of arts degree as well.

There were also kids (at my age, they’re all kids) with a variety of talents, goals or accomplishments that made them stand out.

This year I met one young man whose principal said he is one of the most consequential student leaders she has worked with in her many decades in education.

Another 2024 graduating student, who is legally blind and with educational challenges, is the (semi) official greeter at his school and knows and remembers the birthdays of all staff and faculty and most of the student body.

He asked me my birthday, and when I was leaving the building, a school aide told me that if that student should ever meet me again, he’ll still know all the details he learned about me. Turns out, coincidentally, that even though we’re many decades apart, this young man and I share the same birthday. It somehow made me feel good to share that with him.

One young woman I just spoke with has been a three-sport athlete (soccer, cheer and tennis) at her school for four years while maintaining a 3.95 GPA.

She also holds down a part-time job. When the cheer team is stunting (pyramids, tosses), her position is that of base, the individual who holds most of the weight of the person tossed in the air. And she is a slender 5-foot-2.

She smiled rather knowingly at my reaction. “Yes, I’m pretty strong,” she said softly.

One student has, as she describes it, been sick since she was a baby with some pretty significant illnesses, with new diagnoses coming throughout her life. Her attitude has enabled her not to get stuck in it all. “If you’re going to feel not well anyhow, you may as well feel sick while being outside doing something rather than just sitting quietly inside on a chair.” She’s learned that “the biggest gift of being sick is the empathy you have for other people,” and she has a plan for how she intends to help specific groups of people be safe once she’s attained her law degree.

And so, I invite you to read the June 5 issue of The Spokesman-Review to meet the many exceptional students who will be featured in the extensive graduation section. It will be reading that lightens your step and makes your day.

A final thought. I always wonder how the future will or did unfold for the students I get to meet ever so briefly. We usually have just one in-person interview (with some occasional follow-up) before I write about them – then off they go, to graduate and live their lives.

I always envision that they are able to realize their dreams, either fully or in some measure.

And I hope they know that reading about them as they set out on life’s journey is their gift to the rest of us, as it brings such encouragement and pride and hope to the generations who have also taken that step – even if it was a long time ago.

Voices correspondent Stefanie Pettit can be reached by email at upwindsailor@comcast.net.