It is, to say the least, an exciting time.

I hope you will read the profiles of our area valedictorians elsewhere in today’s edition.

They are an interesting group of people. What they are not, is bookworms.

Among the many trends I’ve seen over the years in valedictorian interviews is that these students are rarely wallflowers. They are involved up to their eyeballs in activities outside the classroom.

Those activities don’t make them valedictorians, mind you. But they help give each student a sense of accomplishment that is, in many ways, equally as fulfilling as their academic achievements.

Leading a busy life, I suspect, helps them learn time management and priority setting.

Those are two skills I sorely lacked as a new college student.

But these folks will have those attributes in abundance when they step on campus at an institution of higher education.

There is, however, one interesting difference among the valedictorians I interviewed this year and last.

To a person, this year’s East Wake valedictorians have pointed to this accomplishment as a goal since at least the time they entered high school.

Last year’s group, largely, began considering their pursuit of the valedictorian title well into their high school experiences.

Goal-setting, I suspect, is another important trait you’d find in most high achievers.

That’s not as easy a thing to do as you might expect.

Lots of children set goals to become president, or some other equally difficult thing. The trick to successful goal-setting, I believe, is setting achievable goals.

That doesn’t mean they have to be easily achievable. Becoming a valedictorian wasn’t easy for any of these students. But it was clearly achievable.