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At the May 10 Board of Trustees meeting for Forney ISD there were many wonderful people recognized for their contributions to the 2020-2021 school year. They recognized the Elementary and Intermediate Campus Teachers of the Year as well as the Secondary Campus Teachers of the Year. And on Wednesday, May 12, the District honored all of the Forney ISD nurses for their amazing contributions to the health and wellness every single day for our students, staff, and even the community with the COVID vaccines.

Reaching senior year of high school or college is something to celebrate. It means that graduation is on the horizon and another chapter in students’ lives will soon come to a close, with a new one likely to begin shortly thereafter.

Graduation is steeped in tradition. Come the day of graduation, many grads-tobe might be focusing on receiving their diplomas and then celebrating after the ceremony. The hard work students put in affords them every right to celebrate once they’re officially anointed as new grads, but before the party begins it can be fun to reflect on the many traditions associated with graduation ceremonies.

Graduation day is one of the proudest moments in students’ academic careers. Diplomas are symbolic of hours spent honing skills and working on assignments and, ultimately, success in the classroom. High school diplomas represent an opportunity to go on to higher learning or a trade, while college degrees indicate young people are ready to begin their professional lives.

By the time students reach graduation day, many have taken hundreds of tests, written scores of essays, worked through thousands of pencils, and made dozens of friends along the way. Such realities only underscore the notion that graduation is worthy of celebration.

The end of a school year has traditionally been a time of celebration. Students may celebrate because summer vacation has arrived, and families typically gather to celebrate students who have earned their diplomas and degrees. But just as it’s compromised many other traditional celebrations, the COVID-19 pandemic is changing how families can safely celebrate graduation.

A study from the Gap Year Association found that 77 percent of students who take a gap year do so between high school and college. Parents may not know how to react when their soon-to-be or newly minted high school graduates bring up the idea of taking a gap year, but additional findings from the GYA’s “National Alumni Survey” might inspire parents to look at gap years more positively. For example, the survey, the findings of which were based on the responses of hundreds of American and Canadian citizens who had taken gap years in the past, found that 98 percent of respondents indicated their gap years helped them develop as a person, while 96 percent felt their gap years improved their self-confidence. In addition, 84 percent of respon dents felt that they acquired skills to be successful in their careers during their gap years. Perhaps of most interest to parents of high school students contemplating gap years is that 73 percent of survey respondents felt their gap years increased their readiness for college and 57 percent said their gap years helped them determine what they wanted to study in college.

She was sitting at a table in Manhattan, in the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel. This all happened in the mid-70’s, so she told Jay MacDonald from his BookPage interview in 2006. She was THE hot young DC based magazine writer du jour, being tapped by Playboy magazine to write an article on an up-and-coming director for what would wind up being one of her defining life moments. Within the span of an hour, she would hear a fateful voice in her head. It would tell her the solitary life she had painstakingly fabricated needed to be thrown out of a window. She was surely sitting in front of the man she just met but would soon marry. Marry, they would. Divorce shortly thereafter, they also would. Throw in a daughter and our beloved writer’s ensuing alcohol dependence and you begin to wonder why this story isn’t a movie. Or, maybe it was. After all, we’re talking about Martin Scorcese and a little film called Taxi Driver. And, the freelance hot to trot magazine writer? Her name is Julia Cameron. She went on to climb out of her deep dive into drug addiction and alcoholism. She teaches creative writing, still. While she’s written fiction, non-fiction, poetry, films, and even television episodes, her opus magnum is a written artist’s program called “The Artist’s Way” that inspires established and wannabe creatives to find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Today, we’re going to talk about her spine.

JESUS CHRIST WAS “ALL” HUMAN, AND JESUS CHRIST WAS “ALL” GOD.

An amazing year of firsts for the North Forney Falcons ended last Saturday, May 8, with a disappointing 2-1 series loss to the Ennis Lions in the bi-district round of the UIL baseball playoffs.

Smurfit Kappa North America, local company and longtime community partner, made the company’s largest donation to Forney Area United Way (FAUW) last month, presenting FAUW with a check for $55,194.00. This is also the largest amount FAUW has received in one year from a single entity in its history.

Mayes Media Group, a North Texas-based advertising agency specializing in political communications, is proud to announce it has received two coveted Pollie Awards from the American Association of Political Consultants. The awards are the industry’s highest honor bestowed upon political consultants at the national and international level.

I can hear my critics now, “Themer, what a topic about which to write! What made you think of those terms?”