Lawrence Journal-World opinion section

It seems appropriate that high school and college graduations traditionally are held in the spring.

The grass is growing again, flowers are blooming, and thousands of students are embarking on a new chapter of their lives.

Kansas University and some area high schools already have held their graduation ceremonies, and commencement exercises are scheduled for Tuesday at Free State High School and Wednesday at Lawrence High School. It’s an exciting time.

High school graduation, especially, is a rite of passage for young people. They can look around at their classmates and perhaps see at least a few people who have shared their educational lives for the last 12 years. During that time, they’ve grown from children to adolescents to young adults. Ready or not, they now will leave their school days behind and head off to new challenges.

For most of them, some additional education probably is in their future. Some may go directly into the workforce, but many will pursue training certificates or college degrees that will launch their careers.

Lots of decisions and changes lie ahead. There’s still a lot of growing up to do. Not every decision will be a good one. That’s life. You make mistakes, you learn, you move on and try to make better decisions next time.

We hope all of our local high school graduates will look back fondly on their school years, the friends they made and the teachers who helped them learn and mature. Lawrence is proud of its schools. We hope they have given all of this year’s graduates a firm foundation on which to build successful a future for themselves and those they care about.

As we said, it’s an exciting time. Make the best of it.

Congratulations to our grads!