Hard to believe, but we’re only one month out from the end of the school year, with the Fountain Hills Charter School and Fountain Hills Middle School set to hold their promotion ceremonies on Thursday, May 25, and the High School bidding farewell to the class of 2017 Friday evening, May 26.

In other words, we’re moving full steam ahead around the office in order to put together the annual graduation section. We’ll have all of the usual offerings, including profiles, pictures and special memories from the senior class, details on all of the ceremonies and special events, etc.

As always, any parents looking to share a special message with their graduating senior are welcome to contact The Times for inclusion in the graduation edition.

Otherwise, like always, we’ll be on-hand at all of the big events to take photos, write stories and do whatever we can to create keepsakes of these special times.

With only a month left in the school year, we’re wishing all of our local students the best of luck. We know that there’s a lot going on right now, from wrapping up sports seasons to end-of-year testing and beyond. Just stay focused and try to enjoy it and summer will be here before you know it.

I’m actually really looking forward to the graduation edition because of the column I’ll get to write. Each year, I like to look back at the year the graduating seniors first entered the school system. I try to track down information on everything from the biggest moments in history from that year to what was topping the charts in pop culture. It’s always interesting to me to see what the world was up to 13 years ago and, yes, it also makes me feel old when I discover a movie that came out when these youngsters were in kindergarten was a movie I could have sworn came out just a few years back.

But grandpappy Winslett can get out of his rocking chair for a moment, as we’ve still got a few weeks to get through before I need to start stirring up the past.

And if that stuff is already getting to me now, just imagine the state I’ll be in come 2019, when the graduating class was in kindergarten at the same time I began working for The Times fresh out of college.

How do these kids grow up so fast and where, oh where, did all of that time go?

*****

In other news, have you driven through downtown to check out the construction of Park Place recently?

As reporter Bob Burns put it last week, “sticks are going up” as construction on the first floor of residential space has gotten up and running.

I, for one, have been pretty impressed by the whole process. It’s not too often we get to see a big structure sprout from the ground in Fountain Hills and this particular project has been moving along at a rather brisk pace.

I was just talking about how quickly time flies these days and if feels like just yesterday they were breaking ground on this project.

For you graduating seniors looking to get out of the fokls’ house, maybe some apartments in downtown Fountain Hills are to your liking?