It is good to have an end to journey toward: but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
-Ursula K. Leguin
There has been some grand and glorious music written throughout history which stirs the soul and invokes feelings which are unsurpassed by anything known to humankind.
Music which has stood the test of time and is capable of summoning up the emotions of the most passionless individuals, with it the chills of warmth and the ability to bring tears to the eyes of those not normally accustomed to such displays.
Such will be the music of this coming Saturday morning, when the sounds of Sir Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” reaches the heights equivalent to the heights achieved by the graduating class of East Tennessee State University.
A procession of students, who are ending one journey while beginning yet another, and who silently absorb their accomplishments while friends and family look on, all the while realizing that Saturday is simply another extension in that long journey called life.
What you have accomplished cannot be summed up in a few well-chosen words, just as what you about to accomplish as you leave this institution will fill a thousand books twice over.
Every graduating senior is to be commended for their determination to persevere and to accept the waiting responsibilities that will be expected of them in the future.
The future awaits everyone, and the future is now.
Congratulations.
Graduation for this writer in not until December, but today’s viewpoint editorials will in fact be the last ones written for the East Tennessean.
Having recently made the ultimate decision to continue my education and attend graduate school, it has become necessary to devote all my energy in that direction.
And while each one of us walks a separate path in life, walk that path which will ultimately make a difference.
And to my fellow journalists who have endured the wrath and scrutiny of our readers, thanks, it’s been real.
Peace brother, peace.
A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
– Emerson

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