Page 178 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2019

THEFINALSAY
RHONDA
PARKINSON
CLARK, PH.D.
photo courtesy of Rhonda Parkinson Clark, Ph.D. Superintendent of Education
Catholic Diocese of Biloxi
The Class of 2019 will soon be high school graduates. We are confident that they are academically prepared for this next chapter of their lives, and it is our prayer that they are also spiritually prepared. We thank all who have provided this essential foundation for our students, and we believe they are now ready to conquer life as they proceed down whatever path they choose.
Most parents ask similar questions as graduation approaches. Did we tell our children everything we wanted them to know? Did they listen to what we told them? Are they ready to go away to college or to begin a career? Are they prepared to move into adulthood?
The Class of 2019 will, one day, be the leaders of our churches, communities, schools and government. They will have to make their own decisions and, yes, their own mistakes. Our work as parents is certainly not finished, but we know the foundation we started laying the day our children were born is now at a pivotal juncture. For years we took them to practice, made sure they were in church, picked them up from school, took them to the doctor; but for every parent, there comes the time when there is no one left to take to practice, no one else to take to school, no more school projects, and our children must make their own decision to attend church. It is now that we hope
and pray the lessons we
instilled in our children for the past 18 years will guide them in life, and we need them to know they can always seek our guidance and rely on us to be here for them.
As children graduate from high school in the coming weeks, we realize that time passes by far too quickly and these kids of ours are now young adults. Even though
my son is close to college graduation and will soon be attending law school, in my eyes he will always be that curly haired little boy starting pre-kindergarten in our Catholic elementary school. We parents hold these special memories in our hearts but we must realize that the rest of the world does not see our grown children in the same way.
We have completed this phase of being parents, and
we must be ready to move on to the next phase. I am confident that the guidance from the parents and the religious and academic education they have received has prepared these graduates for life beyond high school. They may not need us to take them to practice anymore, but they will always need us to be their parents. I have great expectations for the Class of 2019, and I know they are ready to take on the world.
178 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • April 2019
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