“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

—Mark Twain

The class of 2014 cut its strings of parental control and is on its way, ready to challenge the world.

Unfortunately we are not sure the world is just sitting and waiting for their challenge.

We live in a different world than the one that today’s graduates’ grandparents and even parents went out to conquer and change.

We used to encourage graduates to go forth and work hard, to make the world their oyster.

That is no longer true. We need to challenge our graduates to go forth and think hard, to use their minds in a daily changing world of technology.

Is higher education important for this new group of graduates? Yes, but as the folks at Google just announced, it’s not the most important goal our graduates should have.

Industries are looking for employees who have a working knowledge of their products and a willingness to learn more. They are looking for people who are willing to give of themselves 100 percent or even more.

A piece of paper from a school of higher learning is not going to give you the above.

We are fortunate in this area to have a good technical college — Piedmont Tech — and we urge to enroll learn a trade.

We ask you to volunteer your time to assist others. We promise you, just like in the tithes you pay to your church, your efforts will be blessed tenfold.

We have hope in the class of 2014. We sense that they will realize that the world of today is not a fairy tale world but a world that needs a new direction and a new passion to change it for the good.

We wish the class of 2014 well. We need you to be the class that is talked about for generations because they saw a challenge, they took it, they solved it and because of those efforts the future of us all will be secured.