For Wilshire Baptist Church
We had the privilege and pleasure to drive out of the city and into the heartland this past weekend to attend our nephew’s graduation from Cimarron High School in northeast New Mexico. The village has a population of approximately 1,000 – some of that is year-round staff at Philmont Scout Ranch nearby – so the school is small and the graduating class numbered just 21.
This is the fifth time I’ve attended the high school commencement for one of my brother’s kids, and the ceremonies are always memorable and more than that, they’re enlightening and encouraging.
Probably the most memorable part of these ceremonies is how personal they are. My high school class numbered almost 800 and there wasn’t time to do anything more than read our names as we crossed the stage. But these five commencements I’ve attended have involved classes of less than 30 and one less than 10. At that size, you get to know a lot more about each graduate: their extracurricular activities, further education plans, future career goals and some details about their families.
Three honorees in the class of 2019 gave brief speeches, and one used the opportunity to highlight something meaningful about each of her 20 classmates. She noted friendships and struggles and special moments together; she identified one boy as her first kiss – way back in preschool. What touched me most was a graduate who told how her grandmother was in the class of 1959, and while she never knew her grandmother, she felt a close connection through this common experience of being nurtured by Cimarron High School and by the community that supports it and that had filled the high school gymnasium this day.
I’ve been to Cimarron too many times to count, and while it’s a fine little town with a few interesting shops, beautiful scenery and lots to see and do nearby, I’ve found myself lumping it with other small crossroads that I categorize as “a nice place to visit but wouldn’t want to live there.” Culture and fine arts aren’t apparent, job opportunities appear limited, and harsh seasonal weather and natural disasters such as last year’s wildfires threaten a steady and stable existence. And yet people tough it out and spend their lifetime there as their parents and grandparents did before them.
To me that says a lot about the power of community and home and everything that we in the big cities seem to think we know so much more about. Cimarron is one of those towns that some in the media and in politics dismiss as “flyover country” as they jet from coast to coast where they believe the real action is. But action isn’t the same as heart, and there’s plenty of heart in small towns like Cimarron.
The class of 2019 will pursue a variety of careers: medicine, cosmetology, aerospace engineering, auto mechanics and military service, to name just a few. Some will move away forever, some will come back, and some will never leave. The nephews and niece I have witnessed graduate from Cimarron and similarly small schools in Clayton and Texline are raising families and making their names in ranching, farming, finance and the military. They’re all making our world a better place.
I know the giant high schools here in the Dallas area are proud of their hundreds and even thousands of graduates this year, but in Cimarron they are equally proud of their 21 graduates. And we should tip our hats to their teachers, parents and support systems whether we fly over their towns, zip past them on North Central Expressway, or stop at the intersection of US 64 and NM 21.