Seniors at Knightdale High School and East Wake High School crossed the stage to receive diplomas marking 13 years of formal education.

We congratulate each and every one of them on their accomplishments.

We also admonish them to remember that their education is far from over.

For some college awaits and they likely have the sense that education is still their major priority.

Others will enter the military and they surely know that drills and skills await to be learned.

Still others will enter the world of work. They, too, must learn new skills and new processes.

For all of them, they will learn that completing high school brings new responsibilities.

Balancing that checkbook, keeping tabs on the debit card transactions, keeping the refrigerator stocked with something at least marginally healthy will now be their responsibility.

A cute sign posted in many workplaces exclaims “Your mother doesn’t work here. Clean up after yourself.”

It’s a proposition that bodes true for many of last weekend’s graduating seniors.

Many of the lessons our new graduates will learn over the coming months and years will be learned the hard way.

Mistakes are often our best teachers. The smart person learns from those mistakes and works hard to avoid repeating them.

Families, friends, classmates and co-workers will need to support our new graduates in their next endeavors.

But for the first time in many of their lives, their mistakes will be fully their own. And their successes will be their own too.

We expect many of the latter.

Johnny Whitfield Managing Editor