Bay Ridge High School 1945 Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY) - Full Access

DOWN MEMORY LANE It is only natural that those of us who are about to bring our four years in Bay Ridge to a, we trust, successful close, should look back over the time, and after careful and deliberate thought, answer that age-old question, "Was it worth it?" according to the verdict rendered by consideration. I have asked myself, not once, but scores of times, whether it was "worth it" and many times, though instinctive perversity growled, "No," common sense, aided and abetted by the love that we all bear Bay Ridge, thundered, "Yes!" in such a wrathful tone that all else was insignificant in comparison. The first weeks of February in the year 194-1 saw the present Senior grade in surroundings and an atmosphere which were new to them. It marked the start of a new phase in our lives. To all of us then four years appeared to be a long stretch of time-too long. Now, how– ever, the day of graduation draws near, and we realize what a really short time it has been. These years have seen great changes in us all. We have emerged from the awkwardness of the early teens into young womanhood. We have grown in stature and developed in our ideas and thoughts. These have been vital years-years which have influenced us and prepared us for Life's encounter. We are very much like tiny, helpless birds at the time of graduation, waiting, oh so eagerly, to try our wings, waiting to see whether we will make a successful flight across the Threshold of Life into the world be– yond. We are strong because we have dreams, ambitions, hopes, visions -all of these to make the path brighter and the vista rosier. There is little fear of disillusionment in youth; for youth takes the world as she finds it, dreaming meanwhile of the conquests and reforms which her bright presence will inevitably work in the universe. And why not? Youth is glorious, and rid;culous, by turns, bu~ a 1 vtays refreshingly new. After four years there are hundreds of things I have found in Bay Ridge to love and admire, but, above all, to remember as the best things in life. It is a wonderful thing to be able to count as friends the finest teachers and girls I have ever known, and to be sure that they will always have a word of welcome and a ha~py smile with which to say "Hellol'' Somehow one finds it difficult to explain just what one means by the "Bay Ridge spirit," but it exists in every one of us, though we oftentimes try to stifle it and unfortunately succeed in doing so frequently, but when graduation draws near, we run true to form and say, as numbers II