This week, the Class of 2025 at our area high schools are celebrating their long-awaited graduations, savoring their accomplishments and preparing to begin the next chapter of their lives. Entering ninth grade in the shadow of the pandemic, these young adults ably dealt with unprecedented challenges while simultaneously navigating the conventional ups and downs of adolescence, and over the next four years distinguished themselves scholastically, athletically, civically, spiritually, in the workforce and beyond.