Graduation season ended last week with Natchez High School students celebrating the end of one chapter of their lives and the beginning of the next.

Before we finally get the summer season under way, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights from last:

-A sudden downpour at Natchez High School didn’t dampen the spirits of the 183 graduates Friday night. As one proud mother said of the event, the heavy rain was not the first storm she had made it through with her child. Congratulations to all of this year’s graduates. May they all weather life’s storms with confidence, optimism and determination.

-Morgantown Leadership Academy seventh-graders Javion Dunbar and Omar Pinkney excelled at the recent Jobs for Mississippi Graduates career development conference at the Jackson Convention Complex. Joining 2,000 students from across the state, Dunbar won a chairman award for the most improved student and Pinkney won third place in finance development. Congratulations to Dunbar and Pinkney. We know that they will continue to be examples of excellence for all of their classmates.

-The Natchez Festival of Music capped off a month of celebrating Natchez’s tricentennial by celebrating the city’s Spanish roots. With the help of the Natchez Convention and Visitor Bureau, Natchez Pilgrimage Tours and the National Park Service, festivalgoers were treated to an evening of Spanish food and wine in the city’s old Spanish quarter. The celebration continued with Saturday’s performance of the opera “Carmen” and a special guest, Natchez’s own Miss American 1960 Lynda Lee Mead Shea, who returned home to celebrate the city’s birthday. Congratulations to the festival for a wonderful month of music and celebrations.

Before we head into the hot months of summer, let us remember on this Memorial Day the many men and women who sacrificed their lives for the many freedoms we enjoy as Americans.