The proof is right there on the front page of Thursday's Citizen.
It was graduation day at Harwin elementary Wednesday and Citizen photographer Brent Braaten captured a group of Grade 7 students in a celebratory mood.
More importantly, his photograph captures a subtle but important social evolution.
The rules have changed for Grade 7 students "graduating" from elementary school to high school.
His hair may be hot pink but that boy is wearing a tie. Never mind that his shirt is untucked and he's wearing jeans and sneakers. That's a tie.
The four girls in the front are in dresses for their "graduation" day. Two of those dresses appear to be strapless. They are jarringly formal but these dresses are less about fashion and more about making a blunt announcement that they are no longer little girls but young women, moving into secondary education.
Not so long ago, finishing Grade 7 was a more private and personal celebration. Students would look forward to going to high school and starting Grade 8 with a mixture of fear and anticipation.
Kids in Grade 7 would be grateful to get away from the school with the little kids and move up to a place more befitting their station in life, particularly if they had already turned 13 and/or their bodies (and supposedly their brains, just ask them) had already matured.
The sweet excitement about heading to high school, where the cool kids and the cool teachers and the cool classes were, mixed deeply with the cold terror of being lost in a huge, new school, with new rules, tougher courses and oh-my-god (shortened these days to OMG!) he or she is gorgeous and I'm not.
Not so long ago, there were no "graduation" ceremonies or parties afterwards for Grade 7 students. Grade 7 students showed up on their last day, said goodbye to favourite teachers, collected awards or at least adoration from the Grade 5 and 6 students who couldn't wait to be in their shoes, and then moved on to a summer of bikes and playgrounds, maybe with some little jobs painting fences, mowing lawns or babysitting.
Maybe that was wrong, not to celebrate in Grade 7 that transition from childhood to the uncertainty of being a teenager and a young adult.
Looking deeper at the photo, the joy in their young, unblemished faces is pure, the leaps into the air uncorrupted by the worry of what others might think.
The moment is perfect because they are children but the first signs of their adult selves are budding as surely as flowers in spring.
But what's ahead for them in the next five years is daunting.
They will make personal and educational decisions that could shape the rest of their lives. They will learn so much about the world and about themselves. Hopefully, they will also learn what they don't know and an insatiable curiosity for more - more knowledge, more experience, more living - will take root.
There are so many distractions today for them, so many ways they can fall off-course but there are also so many opportunities for them now to find their passion.
Like all celebrations, their joy should be bittersweet. They are leaving behind the world that made them who they are. They are departing the relative safety of elementary school, where everything is tiny, for high schools, where the hallways are wider, the desks bigger, the drama and emotions so much more pressing.
In many ways, Grade 7 graduation should be more of an event than Grade 12. Everyone graduates Grade 7 but not everyone makes it through high school. About one-quarter of the kids starting Grade 8 this September in local schools won't receive their diploma in six years or less. To put it optimistically but also sadly, two of the 10 children seen in that photo will, for a variety of reasons, not make it to their Grad 2017 convocation.
Good luck, Grade 7s.
Here's the world for ya, go tell them who you are, The Payolas sang a generation ago.
Your feet and your hands are in the air.
Keep them that way and the rest is just details.
