Heartbreaking

AH, FONDLY i remember March, 1973, when senioritis began to kick in, and simultaneously i couldn't wait for my senior year to end and to graduate from high school, and i dreaded the thought, knowing that it would be final, the end of a vital part of my life, gone forever, friends I would never see again. Everyone's been through it, except of course for the drop out G.E.D. crowd. And so it came to pass; the summer of seventy three, the Watergate hearings, and then college, and so on, my high school friends growing more distant with the years and decades, but still important; I have been to every high school reunion, and will probably attend number fifty, three years hence, lord willing, and the creek don't rise. Oh heavens I feel sorry for the class of twenty twenty, their senior year truncated by teh virus, just as the bittersweet feelings of senioritis were kicking in. they'll never know the pleasurable pain of those final few weeks and days, those drunken last few nights with friends soon to be parted forever.. prom, graduation night, the whole shootin' match. In every grade level there are unique situations which make for unique lifetme memories, and so many of those will be shattered or twisted beyond recognition. it must be weird to be a student right now, and i feel sorry for them all. But we must persevere. We must make more sacrifices, not fewer. At my age, every football seasonlost is one I will never get back. For college and high school football players, families, and fans, every cancelled game and season is lost forever. Again, to be a high school or college senior, and missing that last precious football season forever, must be heartbreaking. But we must do it. We must make more sacrifices, not fewer. Our unwilllingness to make personal sacrifices is at the root of our problem; with sufficient sacrifice months ago, we would not now be in this dreadful situation, with the virus more out of control every day; we've no one to blame but ourselves. We must take heart by remembering that all generations of Americans have had to make sacrifices, that all great people everywhere have done it, and that when we make necessary sacrifices in the present for a better future, the price we pay pays off. As Goethe said: "One does not always lose when one must do without". What he meant, of course, is what we all know; that when we do without now for something worth waiting for, the wait is always rewarded in the end. Just think' that next football season is really going to be a good one.