The big day is almost here.

For more than 300 high school seniors in Gloucester and 54 in Mathews, Saturday is the day they will get up early (for their first weekend of summer vacation, that is), make that all-too-familiar trip to the high school, put on their caps and gowns and wait for the familiar notes of “Pomp and Circumstance” to begin as a cue to walk into the auditorium (in the case of Mathews students) or onto the football field (for Gloucester students), taking furtive glances over their shoulders at the crowd to see mom and dad as they take their seats.

Some will likely be blasé about the whole thing, while others giddy with anticipation, or tired after a restless night spent tossing and turning. Some have the next steps of their life’s journey carefully laid out before them (the college or university they will attend in a few short months, a commitment to a hitch in the military, enrollment in a trade school or a job lined up and waiting for them), while others like...