05/23/2026
There are moments in life that feel ordinary while we are living them. And then one day… you look back. And you realize those moments were never ordinary at all.
That’s what I keep thinking about as I watch the Class of 2026 cross the finish line.
A meeting after school. A ride home after an event. A food pantry box filled one can at a time. Painting little faces with rainbows and butterflies at the homecoming fair. A laugh shared too loudly in the overcrowded art room where we gathered to make plans and dream out loud. A hand extended to someone sitting alone. A difficult conversation in the chair next to Mrs. Kinslow’s desk. A brave choice, made even when it was hard. A group of young people deciding, again and again, to show up for each other.
Not to be perfect. To be shaped…challenge after challenge, choice after choice into people who keep going, keep trying, keep walking toward something worth building.
And they built something.
Through RISE, these students stood against Big To***co. They helped drive real policy change around va**ng. They filled food pantries ..sooooo many food pantries. They created events that welcomed people in. They showed their community what leadership actually looks like. Not polished, not perfect. Real. The kind built slowly and consistently. Brick by stubborn brick (the good kind). Person by person.
What they created reaches further than posters, meetings, campaigns, or policy. They created belonging. They created connection. They built spaces where people felt safer. Seen. Needed. Loved.
This is what prevention looks like and it’s worth saying out loud.
It looks like laughter in a crowded room. It looks like having somewhere to go. Someone to text. Someone who notices when you’ve gone quiet. It looks like purpose. Community. Joy. These students pushed back against loneliness. Against silence. Against the idea that people have to carry hard things alone. They reminded people… sometimes without even realizing it … that they matter.
To the Class of 2026:
You may not fully understand yet what you’ve set in motion. But someday you’ll look back at a sunset on the football field, a room full of people who showed up because of something you built, and you’ll know. The Rebels still have a long way to go … we all do. This work is never finished. It’s a cycle meant to be continued, handed off, carried forward.
But if hope looks like anything… it looks like you.
It looks like young people choosing goodness when the world gives them reasons not to. It looks like courage. It looks like kindness. It looks like showing up. It looks like students standing shoulder to shoulder at sunset, caps flying(🥹)…arms wrapped around one another not fully understanding yet that they are becoming the people who will shape what comes next.
PSA to the adults watching:
Parents. Teachers. Coaches. Community members. Protect these moments. Grow them. Young people are not problems to solve. They are possibilities waiting to be believed in. Listen to them. Lift their voices. Help them understand that kindness is not weakness, that leadership doesn’t require perfection, and that change begins quietly with one person, then another, then another …. until mountains move.
Communities are not built by programs. They are built by people who keep choosing one another.
So keep going. Keep caring. Keep building.
The world needs what you carry. More than you know.
We are so grateful and proud.
🤍
