Congratulations

I'm sitting in the nosebleed section of the Magness Arena at D.U. awaiting the graduating class of Thunderridge High School class of 2019. Kudos to my final nephew Jakob for making it this far. As I'm sure the Valedictorians will gamely point out, a brave world awaits. It's been a long, long time since my High School graduation and it's both amazing and scary to contrast the world when I flipped my tassel all those years ago with today.

The words lockout and lockdown as well as the phrase 'shelter in place' were not yet in our vocabulary and yet just last week and just a short distance from Thunderridge there was another school shooting at the Highlands Ranch STEM school.

The world these new grads face is full of challenges my generation never faced. Are they ready? Time will tell. Will they live up to the aspiration to leave the world a better place? Again, only time will tell.

As I gaze out at their impossibly young faces I can only hope for the best and wish them luck as they tackle the world my generation and those that have come after are handing into their care. God bless and God speed Class of 2019!