06/12/2026
Dear Class of 2026,
(Especially my nephew, C**t - who is in the back row).
ENJOY this summer. For some of you, it’s the last one you get to be JUST a kid. For some, it’s the last one you’ll spend near all your friends. Life will pull you further away than just “down the road.”
Spend as much time with the people who signed your yearbooks “let’s hangout” & “I hope we’re friends forever.” You won’t believe me - but one day you won’t be able to put a face to the signatures asking you to “reach out this summer” or “call them.” Call them. Reach out.
Keep in touch. You have a couple of months at best before college & jobs & internships & adulthood start you down different paths than the friends you’ve been walking the same roads with since you can remember.
Take so many pictures - & then print them. Because cell phones break, social media isn’t forever, and laptops get stolen. Enjoy your “this isn’t forever” job. There’s a freedom in the lack of pressure that restaurant job you are only working at “until” gives you. Or the retail job that’s only “for now.” But show up and do your best - because some of you have accidentally already found your careers and futures, and one day you’ll give a speech about how you started the summer you graduated, worked hard, and moved up to “where you are now.”
Know that nothing will ever feel more like summer than a trip to the HV Pool and then a drive to Sonic for Happy Hour - trust me.
For your senior week beach trip be sure to invite at LEAST one responsible friend. They are the ones who will have aloe when you burn, Tylenol when you need it, and will remind you to eat more than once a day.
You need that friend. As much as you need to spend the summer loving on your grownups who got you here - because this is their last real summer with you, too. Invite them to the pool one day. Or to lunch. Don’t act TOO excited to leave them.
& know that there’s a reason so many songs are written about life at 17/18. It’s not that it gets better or worse necessarily after … it’s that everything next is “the after” while for the rest of your life THIS is where all of your strongest feelings of nostalgia will come from, for the rest of your life.
Congratulations!
With love,
Vicki - EHS Class of 2006.
Once a jet, always a jet. ✈️
