’Tis the season of graduations. Tearful students share goodbyes sprinkled with the dew of new beginnings. Mortarboards and Mylar balloons sail at crowded commencements.

Graduations remind us of our own cerebral sandcastles, carefully crafted during school days past. As adults, we reflect on dreams fulfilled and unrequited. Whatever happened to our thespian, teaching, medical or entrepreneurial aspirations? Did we miss the mark, but in doing so, discover a mission even more fulfilling than our original goal?

Emelyn Barrientos and John Schuller share a common thread as students in the class of 2008. However, Emelyn is a 2008 graduate of Gower Middle School, while Schuller completed his education at Hinsdale South High School. As two graduates leaving one educational anchor and heading for a new academic destination, both students reflected on dreams for their futures.

Emelyn, a Burr Ridge resident, will attend Hinsdale South. She described her seventh-grade math teacher, Mrs. Coburn, as “one of my favorite teachers/coaches who inspired and taught me volleyball.” In addition to her interest in sports, Emelyn is a gifted writer who received an award for her poetry from an Indian Prairie Public Library contest.

“I love school! At Gower Middle, I was with so many people, and even the people I didn’t really like have become my safety blanket, and it’s hard parting from it,” she said. “The one thing I regret the most is that I wish I could have made friends with so many more people in my grade. I’m scared to go to high school because I want to hold onto being a kid — to coloring and things. I’m not ready to go to high school, but I have to.”

In the fall, Schuller will be a freshman at Illinois State University. At Hinsdale South, he was a member of the Hornets swim team. Schuller enjoys playing the guitar. He looks forward to his new digs in a campus dorm, and hopes to eventually earn a degree in music production.

“My biggest dream and aspiration is to be involved with music. Whether it’s being a musician or a producer, I want my job to involve music and the industry,” Schuller said. “I hope to use my involvement with music to shape the world around me. I am not going out to change the world but rather change what I can.”

Like Schuller, Emelyn is uncertain of the path she will follow. But hers is a heart filled with bountiful hopes and dreams.

“You have to be brave to step into those hallways and face all the new situations because there are going to be good ones and bad ones, and you just need to take the right road,” Emelyn said. “I’m looking forward to high school because I want to find out who I am and what I can offer to the world.”

She loves to write and enjoys art, history, archeology and science.

“I love the combination of having mystery in our world and having to solve it with the gifts you are given,” Emelyn said. “If I can just put a smile on every face I meet and every hand I shake, then I know that I have accomplished what I want in life — and that’s to help people.”

Side note: There will be a farewell reception for Cheryl Antos, the director of religious education at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Darien, immediately after the noon Mass at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 8, in the church hall. All parishioners are invited to come downstairs for sandwiches, cake and to wish Antos the best in her future endeavors. For more information, contact rectory secretary Kathleen at (630) 323-4333, Ext. 8.