Dear Reader,

Just as seniors walk across the stage and into the future, the Appleton North community prepared to walk into three months of sun-kissed summer. In this sacred season, I wish you rest. I wish you ice cream. I wish you long walks threaded with sunshine and laced with breezes that can only be described as soft and warm and aromatic. I wish you unforgettable memories with friends and family that you may or may not photograph and post to Instagram in late January with painfully, collectively, relatable captions like “I miss summer!” I wish you the reflection and enjoyment that well-deserved time away from an eight-hour school day brings.

But before we all snap our Chromebooks shut and ignore Canvas for as long as possible, Noctiluca invites you to appreciate accomplishment and progress. My mother always says that years go fast but days go slow. With our Graduation Issue, Noctiluca celebrates the conclusion of another school year and commends the Appleton North student body for the achievements throughout it: for the long nights studying; the early mornings practicing; the hours spent learning and revising, honing and implementing new skills. The slow days we invested have brought us to the finish line of a year, and the strife they induced in the moment makes this spot, this moment in time, that much sweeter. Congratulations; we did it.

Signing off with love and gratitude, 

Mya