If anything, today’s story about a 97-year-old woman receiving a high school diploma teaches us that it’s never too late to achieve your dreams.

No matter how big, or how small, whether it takes 80 years or 80 seconds, reaching a goal that you set for yourself is an amazing feeling.

Setting goals keeps us on track for what we want to achieve in life, and how we want to do it.

This strong-willed woman is an inspiration for many reasons. 

As one of the women known as “Rosie the Riveters,” she fought on a different battlefront during World War II.

Called to serve by working in manufacturing at a Meridian airfield, she worked hard to protect her brothers serving abroad, and her siblings still at home.

That’s a valid reason for not finishing high school.

But even after coming home to Picayune and starting a family, she always held a desire to finish her education as she watched her children do.

So many of us take our education for granted.

Today, some students struggle to work after-school or weekend jobs to provide for their families. But with stories like this one, we all might think a little bit more about the power and the wonder that surrounds education. 

Across the county there are GED programs for adults who didn’t have the opportunity to get their high school diploma.

Many of those programs are free and have flexible schedules.

With those programs available, achieving that goal is much easier than it would have been 80 years ago.

Just like Mrs. Martensen, it’s possible to never stop working toward your goals, even if it takes an entire lifetime and extra help from those we love.