Tinsley: Graduations offer new beginnings
Throughout the month of May, high schools, colleges and universities will graduate the class of 2024. The universities of Michigan, Tennessee and Washington State, among others, will lead the way on Saturday.
Young men and women will line up this month robed in caps and gowns, grinning at their friends. Their eyes will scan the audience, peering past dangling tassels in search of family members who search for them. Cameras and cell phones will light up stadiums and auditoriums with bursts of light as proud parents try to capture the magic of the moment.
All graduates who walk across stages to receive their diplomas represent unique stories.
Few are as unique as World War II veteran Bob Zonneville, who graduated from Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio, at 88 in 2013. Zonneville fought in the 8th Infantry Division across Europe and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. He was twice wounded, once by a hand grenade and later by artillery shrapnel.
Zonneville says he started college in his 80s because of his wife, Carol, who passed away in 2008. A career schoolteacher, she constantly urged him to get his college education.
“I thought, maybe in her memory, I ought to do it,” he said.
Given the opportunity to enroll in non-credit courses at his advanced age Zonneville said, “Nah. I’ll pay the tuition. I’m going to be a student. I’m going to get the credits. I’m going to do the work.”
At the time, one 19-year-old classmate said, “He’s also always telling us to do better for ourselves and keep succeeding.”
One professor said, “His enthusiasm is contagious, and his positive outlook on our younger generation is refreshing.”
Today Zonneville is 101 and still active in his hometown of Mentor, Ohio, where he recently spoke at a community gathering.
Graduation commencements inspire us because they not only recognize significant achievement, they celebrate new beginnings, new possibilities and opportunities. Education offers the young the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills that equip them for the future. For those who are older, it offers the opportunity to retool, to start over, to pursue new dreams.
As important as education is, nothing compares to a spiritual transformation that connects us with God and places in our hearts the values that make life meaningful.
Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” In Ezekiel 36:26, God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
God is always about new beginnings. He offers the young the opportunity to launch their lives on the path that leads to life and, to those who are older, the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start over. Whether or not you hold a formal degree from an institution, whether you are 19 or 90, you can make a new start on life through faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."
Bill Tinsley reflects on current events and life experience from a faith perspective. Visit www.tinsleycenter.com. Email bill@tinsleycenter.com.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Tinsley: Graduations offer new beginnings
