A high school graduation is seen from at least three perspectives. There are the students, joyous at their accomplishments and of a long journey coming to an end. It is true everywhere that what comes next may fill high school graduates with wonder and a bit of worry, but perhaps this is magnified on an Island. There are boundaries here, porous ones, but a distinct blue line nevertheless, setting off this place from the rest of the country. Which brings us to the next perspective; the community.

The Vineyard is a close-knit place with roots that extend for generations, and it understands the magnitude of what it means to go forth in the world. One need to look no further than the extraordinary number and size of scholarships the students receive each year from businesses, organizations and both year-round and summer residents to see the truth of this. Students may walk across the stage alone but with them, both in the crowd and as they grew up, is the entire Island community. From chorus recitals to Little League games, gymnastics, piano, summer camp, nature walks, swim lessons, school trips, summer jobs, the arcade and the first trip to the Flying Horses, each student has interacted and intersected with so many facets of Island life that these faces are as familiar as one’s very own children.

Here at the Gazette, we have put these faces and accomplishments in our pages each week, from the first baby born each New Year to honor rolls, Agricultural Fairs, solar car races, Fourth of July parades, trout tournaments and a passing moment on Alley’s porch. And just like a community, a newspaper’s heartbeat is its children.

Which leads to the next perspective: parents and family. A high school graduation is most definitely an end and a beginning. The future by definition is unknown, beginning with college, travel, work or something else entirely. But the journey to this point is very clear to every parent. It began with birth, with feeding and changing diapers and hovering over cribs with wonder and worry over this new life. It went from sitting up to crawling to walking and first words. There was preschool or kindergarten and snack time and playing in the mud, learning to read, add numbers together and homework, at first embraced but perhaps later dreaded.

The journey of school is the journey of adolescence, of becoming a teenager and then a young adult with opinions and skills and driver’s licenses. One never stops being a parent, but one definitely stops being a child. A cap and gown and diploma in hand puts the period at the end of this sentence.

A high school graduation is a reflection of the past but it is also a glimpse of the future, both of this Island and the wider world. Students everywhere are walking across stages at this time of year cheered on by family and friends and their communities. The cheers soar with pride and with hope for this next generation who we know so well and yet cannot fathom what they will become.

We here at the Gazette wish the class of 2015 all the best as they begin the next chapters in their lives. May the bonds of the Island always lift your spirits and provide a light to guide you.