Graduation

I think everyone should be required to attend at least one graduation ceremony every year.  It is a wonderful opportunity to take stock of life - to look forward, to look backwards, and ruminate on the deeper meanings of life. [It's also a fun place to people-watch.]

In this particular graduation there were about 135 grads.  I knew approximately 3.7% of them.  They all had matching gowns and hats - and no distinguishing features except for the occasional red high-heel shoes.  And yet, when each of them crossed the stage, a little party went on.  They had each reached a significant milestone of life.  And they were about to cross a bridge into adulthood which would take them each in a different direction.

I sat in the upper levels, wondering where their life paths would lead them.  Some will probably live, what some would term 'uneventful' lives - maybe never moving away from their home towns, settling down with someone and having 1.1 children.  Some will venture off to worlds unknown - discovering cultures and information they couldn't have studied in school because there wouldn't have been enough time. There will be some who will not make the 10th reunion.

By then, the group will have forgotten the drama and the daily hassles they faced in high school.  They will have a broader perspective on the things they studied.  They will have had more life experience and will understand more of the implications of the subjects they studied, and perhaps be more grateful for their high school experience.  The math lessons in that stuffy old classroom on the second floor will either be part of their daily life or they will have left them far behind and proved once and for all, that just as they often espoused to their parents, learning quadratic equations really did them no good in their 'real life'.  They might find that the essays they wrote, turned them into a famous author - or at least a good ad copywriter.  Perhaps their foray into the athletic classes prepared them to become the next fitness guru whose videos went viral and made them a millionaire.

I look back at my own high school experience with mixed emotions, as I am sure some of these same graduates will do.  It was a time of trying to fit in, without looking obvious.  I had some great opportunities.  I got to go places and do things that have never been repeated.  I am so glad I had them, but I have no desire to return to those days.  I wish the same for these graduates - that they will never have to talk about their high school experience as 'the good old days'; that they will instead enjoy the gift of each day and say, as I do: "I have a great life.  I am blessed".