It's graduation time - make a plan

There are always a few who know what they want to do after graduating from high school.

My great granddaughter, Kaylee Landeros, has already been accepted at Eastern Washington University and soon will go to the campus to plan her schedule of classes for fall.

I had no idea what I would do when I went through the diploma process back in 1948.

I wasn’t alone. Several in my class loaded up and went to Walla Walla to work in the cannery.

I remember we had 11-and-a-half-hour shifts, seven days a week. Low pay, but lots of overtime.

Six of us rented a single hotel room, three on the day shift and three on the night shift. Three to the bed, and the bed never cooled.

The pea harvest lasted a couple of weeks and we then returned home.

I had heard of a lumber mill that was looking for someone, so I interviewed and got the job.

I started by sawing down trees with an experienced partner who was slow to believe that I could cut it. Soon the boss moved me over to hooking chokers in the woods, a far worse and more dangerous job.

After a couple of months, Potlatch Forest Inc. mill advertised for workers, so I applied and got a job. The pay was a little lower, but the job was year-around. It wasn’t unusual for people to end up at some form of lumber job. My father and his brothers logged for Potlatch, and two of my brothers were employed there.

That’s the kind of thing you did when you didn’t have a good plan.

We had 24 in our graduating class. It turned out two teachers, a college professor, a cattle rancher, three farmers, a dentist, a pharmacist, a manager of the Grange, a Boeing employee, a career Navy man, a forest service man, a few housewives, and a journalist.

I didn’t plan to write for a living, it just happened.

I abbreviated my middle name and used just an initial because I was afraid if I had to write all three names, I would mess them up.

I got into writing through the patience of a very fine editor who took me on as a personal challenge. Boy, he didn’t know what he was in for.

But through his patience, and my persistence, we finally made it.

While I had no plans for my future, I finally made up my mind to go to college. I was 25 and already had two children.

I would encourage young people to develop a plan, even if you change it along the way.

Life is full of making plans; some will stick, and others will make way for a better plan.

So, to those Lake Roosevelt graduates receiving diplomas Saturday, good luck, and may your plans and hopes come true.