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Now at the apex of their school careers, seniors are left to wonder what legacy they have left behind.

Seniors, now embarking on separate journeys, reflect on the relationships they have forged, and they wonder if somehow they were able to partake in experiences with others that were meaningful. If somehow, they have had the opportunity to endow the people they have encountered with something enriching and relevant, something that will mark one’s relationships when time breaks the once fortified bonds of friendship.

Never will seniors forget the teachers that inspired them, the students in their English class that made them laugh, the girls they had a crush on and the friends that they communed with through the years who without falter propped them up and helped them reach their dreams.

Despite the lasting impact seniors have on each other, seniors face the fact that there is little permanence in the bonds they have forged, and thus, they ponder their impact on each other. How will the class of 2008 be remembered? What will they take with them from the times they have shared together?

It is at this point that they realize that their true legacy lies not in remembrance, but in what they inspire and create that is carried on by others, the traditions that they form are their voice and deed, their conversation with those they leave behind as well as their memory.

The most remarkable traditions are the ones that are more than just rites, but rather, the traditions that transcend time and interpersonal barriers being carried on and cherished only more with the passing of time.

A prime example is how on the seniors’ last day of school, Onalaska’s Concert Choir juniors circled up around their senior classmates and sang “Alleluia,” a concert choir tradition that the seniors had just passed on to the juniors during the fall of the year, and it is in this sharing of tradition that seniors “set a seal” upon the hearts of those they encounter knowing well that what they have shared is beautiful and lasting beyond the brief time they have had with each other.

Many have come before and will come after the class of 2008; bonds have formed only to break at time’s dictated point of transition to the next stage, but it is in the fact that the traditions that have been shared, much like a song, endure forever in the hearts of others where all legacies left by the senior classes of the past, present and future lie.

The fact that one rite still speaks to the hearts of those who come after oneself is principle to one’s personal memory, for it is the traditions one forges that actually affect those around them, not said person’s personal glories.

Graduation might be saying goodbye to the people one has shared so much with, but one can take solace in the fact that impact and tradition aren’t as transient as their aspirations make their carnal self.

So, when the class of 2008 is ”Ona Way,” traditions that they have built are here to stay to speak to the up-and-coming and impact those they leave behind on life’s journey to become the people they are destined to become.

Jerad McHenry graduated from Onalaska High School on Sunday.