____I stand before the pages of time, desperately trying to match a face from the present with that of an image in the yearbook of my past. As I turn the pages, memories of a world different from now flashes before me. So different, was it really? As the breeze from a window rustles the pages, stirs up images of long forgotten, now long gone souls, I wonder if all alumni feel this time warp. Each class, when looking through its yearbook, and all the yearbooks down through the generations, remembers a culture, a society, now no more.

____We all move between 2 worlds. The world of the here and now, and the world of memories. What we remember is colored by all the years that have come between. Yet inaccurate though these musings might be, they do contain a measure of truth. We had passion and hope, and in today's world that is in short supply. We were teenagers but we also had goals. We felt that if we fought for those goals, the world would give us a chance to win.

____Over the last decade, the world seems to have slowly erased passion and hope from the souls of our young. They drag themselves into a school that neither cares for dreams nor fosters courage to face tomorrow's disappointments. In the midst of it all, our teenagers must cope with a culture of death, a universe where reality and fantasy merge. Where parents leave them to their own devices, home alone in their rooms. To dream of revenge, to dream of violence, to dream of doing anything to get attention in a world that doesn't hear their cries for help.

____How sad it must be to look back in your yearbook and remember your class as the one in which blood was shed. To be an alumnus of a school that will go down in infamy as the one where fantasy played itself out in gunplay. Where passion meant murder, and hopelessness meant death.

____But not all schools are Columbines. There are schools wherein passion and hope are alive and well. As I turn the pages of my yearbook, see the photos of corridors and classrooms that still exist, I know miracles can occur. My high school, Art and Design, is living proof that even after 65 years this negative trend of darkness does not have to take hold and mature. For it wasn't too many years ago, graphiti started to grace her walls, students were turning into an angry inconsiderate mob. Then a few people who had passion and concern, put the pieces back together, put hope into her soul and replaced the darkness with the light of hope for a better tomorrow.

____And that is the magic formula. The stuff upon which miracles can be based. What I remember most about my years here was that I really wanted to be here. How many students in other schools really can say that? I had a reason to come in every day, attend the dreadful along with the delightful classes, all because I knew it would all place me closer to my young life's goals. That is what takes the darkness out of teenagers' souls. Giving them a purpose to get up in the morning and come in not because laws or parents mandate it. I also remember teachers who had a passion for their craft and transferred that passion to their students. It was a very contagious state of existence! Also, my parents felt good about my attending a school that made me happy - even though they weren't certain art would be a profitable career. Parents who listened to me when I talked about my school day and my assignments. Parents caring about their teenager's school knowing it enhances her life, instead of diminishing it through gangs or cliques or in-group warfare.

____Will our country's education system realize that the answer lies not in metal detectors or locked down schools? That the forces of darkness are never conquered through confinement and tough regulations? It is the specialized schools, that have begun to spring up, that are planting the seeds of hope into this generation's heart. It is in those schools that each day is greeted with a feeling of purpose and a vision that indeed there is a future worth working towards.

____For all of us who look through our yearbooks, the hairdos and clothes, and advertisements look dated and out of place. However, what I see in the writings about the Vietnam war, the hippy movement hair and jewelry, or strange makeup is something that is timeless. It is the voice that calls through the years saying the soul of this school is the same. It is seen in the smiles, the pride in the artwork, the teachers interacting with the students, the Principal walking through the halls, the parents asking about their child's performance. And it is there in those of us who continue to fight to make it a better place. The Alumni who continue with the passion to fundraise, give scholarships, work with the students. Along with a new beginning, as neighbors of the school get swept up in this passion.

____Although Art and Design's uniqueness as an art school might seem to make it easy for this to happen, if no one cared, if no one wanted students to succeed, if no one had the passion and dedication to reach out, come together and work towards realizing a better tomorrow, we too could become another Columbine.