Long before students hear the processional from Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” at graduation, they have experienced a procession of events, each one of them for the last time.

Friday they rejoiced that the fire drill was “our last fire drill!” They have had their last Advanced Placement tests and their last interim grades. Soon they will take their last high school finals. With the passing of each “last,” the students grin in triumph, but with some awareness that not all of their “lasts” will be so simple.