Dear Editor:
“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” What does that mean to you?
I guess according to the editors of the Summerland Secondary School yearbook it means, “We’re teenagers so we’re gonna get drunk.”
To more enlightened people it means that it is time to kick back with friends and celebrate the fact that the day is done and you can move onto other things.
It means reconnecting with friends, and enjoying activities such as boating, riding, camping, and life — something we all should strive to do.
Had the person or people with the final say for entries into the yearbook taken the time to ask, that is what he or she would have been told.
Stereotyping our young people is a mistake.
There are 22 students that were able to enter the trades programs in January this year from the graduating class.
These are young people who have a vision and the drive to get out there and get the training they will require to get them into the job market and be productive adults that contribute to our society.
They have taken the next step and they should be proud.
They are working harder now than ever and succeeding.
However, somewhere in the system, the powers that be seem to interpret things differently. One has to wonder what the 20 students that had their grad write-ups and comments edited out actually said — not surprisingly many of these are students that went into the Trade programs.
Surely there would have been ones that did not get them in on time; but how many had comments that were not deemed good enough or “appropriate” taken out?
We are trying to groom our young people to be independent-thinking, productive, responsible adults.
Give them the credit that they deserve and have earned.
I would like to congratulate all the graduates of 2013.
And yes – it is 5’o’clock somewhere and the rest of your 24 hours is ahead of you.
So grab life by the horns and ride it wherever it takes you.
Like some wise young men I know would say “git r done.”
Lorraine Sopow
Summerland
