Page 6 - 1997

Ready or Not

The Test Begins Here

You're always testing yourself. You face tests daily, and if
you should ever choose to stop testing yourself, that’s when you
stand the chance of risking your life. It is not a physical risk of
endangerment but a risk of greater magnitude. It is a risk in which
you take leave of your entire self; all you stand for and believe in, all
you uphold to be good, to chance.
At Ralston High School you have been tested as perhaps you
never have been before. This year, 1997, represented the culmina­
tion of a four year trial. Seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen
from the beginning became bonded under the heightened gradua­
tion requirements for the first time. The improved standards of
excellence, first handed down when the Class of 1997 walked into
the Botanical Gardens as freshmen, were now, for the first time, the
test for all classes.
Outcomes, more credits, community service requirements,
to the high school student of our generation, once ear-marked by our
predecessors as lazy, apathetic and shiftless, these stipulations are
the test of all tests. The seniors have risen to meet the challenge,
and leaving that legacy, RHS shall see its fair share of graduates
from upcoming classes. Graduates better tested, with higher
approval ratings.
It is that approval, that high standard of excellence, that has
brought us altogether under this common bond we share as Ralston
students. Let us all leave that legacy, that this test may become the
norm, and approval be the victory. We shall know that we have
continued to test ourselves, to better ourselves, to keep ourselves fit
in mind and soul. We have not taken the chance of leaving our
doings to mediocrity. Rather, we have stood stalwart against life’s
trials and tribulations. Then shall we see that as Ralston High
School’s proud students, we truly have been tested and approved.
by Adam Klinker

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