There are moments in life when it is important to simply pause and take in the present; to be intentional enough to recognize that one day, the ordinary moments happening right now will become the memories we hold onto most tightly.
As I reflect on the graduating Class of 2026 from Wessington Springs High School, that feeling has been on my mind.
For nearly 11 years, I have had the privilege of watching many of you grow up through the pages of the True Dakotan. Long before you were athletes, honor students, leaders or graduates, you were elementary kids smiling nervously in school concert photos, posing proudly with science fair projects, reading books during classroom activities and learning what it meant to be part of a community.
Then, little by little, those same kids became young men and women.
I have photographed you under Friday night lights, on basketball and volleyball courts, on stages, in classrooms, and later this week, I’ll be there at your graduation rehearsal. I’ve interviewed many of you about your accomplishments, your goals, your FFA projects, your athletic achievements and the moments that mattered most to you. Some of you I’ve had the opportunity to work with in journalism settings, watching your confidence and voices grow stronger with each story, photo or idea you shared.
What has always stood out to me most, though, is not simply what you accomplished, it is how you cared for one another along the way.
Your class has experienced joy, success, disappointment, uncertainty and heartbreak together. One moment I will never forget was the way you rallied around your classmate and friend, Estrellita Cardona.
When Estrellita was diagnosed with leukemia as a freshman, your class responded not with fear or silence, but with love and action. You formed “Team Estrellita,” raising awareness and support for your friend while standing beside her and her family through unimaginable circumstances. And when you lost Estrellita in 2023, I watched this class grieve together, support one another and continue forward while carrying her memory with you.
That kind of compassion says more about a class than any scoreboard, award or accolade ever could.
As a newspaper publisher, I often have the responsibility of documenting both the celebrations and the difficult moments in a community. Covering your class through all of it has been one of the great privileges of my career.
You have grown up in front of this community’s eyes, and this community has been cheering for you every step of the way.
Now, as you prepare to leave the halls of Wessington Springs High School and step into your next chapters, I hope you carry with you the values that smalltown life has helped shape: resilience, kindness, humility, hardworkandtheunderstanding that people matter.
I have tremendous confidence in your future and in the kind of adults you are becoming.
No matter where life takes you, there will always be people back here in Wessington Springs proud to call you one of our own.
Congratulations, Class of 2026. Thank you for allowing me the blessing of telling part of your story.
— Kristi Hine, Editor/ Publisher, True Dakotan