Graduations always make me reflective.
I think back to being 18 and ready to fly. Except I flopped a lot. Yes, I definitely did a lot of flying and flopping. Still do.
The school always gets a previous grad who has “made something” of their life. Usually this is by conventional standards of what our world views as success. Of course there is a time and a place to be real. Standing in front of 50 grads with shiny eyes and smelling of teen spirit in their grad gowns is probably not it. Hard gig.
I don’t remember who spoke the year we graduated back in ‘91. Maybe a lawyer I believe?
What I do remember is wanting to get out of there and get on with it. The next chapter, the next thing, the grad party. In my day, university was affordable, so I went. It only cost me $9000 in student loans for three years of university. Crazy when I look at tuition costs now. I worked in the student cafeteria slinging milkshakes to pay for extras my first year. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I went anyway. Community college was not viewed as an option for people with good grades then. No, that was for the ones who would be better suited to working jobs or drop outs. Fast forward to now when every one of my children have attended the local community college for degrees in trades. That’s been a good change in the world.
Graduation isn’t the time to talk about what kind of life you want to live as an adult. You don’t know what you don’t know thankfully. What real life struggles are coming, what interests will take hold, or how sometimes an undergraduate degree is only a stepping stone to more expensive education or humbly taking jobs waitressing.
Sometimes you need to shake it up when you don’t know what you want. I headed to England to live for my fourth year co-op and worked in Securities and Investment for an International bank until several months in I wisely decided it was not what I wanted to do with my life. So I became a nanny for two little boys on a huge estate in a little village outside of London.
That plan certainly was not written in my graduation program. But was it education? You bet your boots it was. I learned so much about culture,history, farming and accountability. I also learned how to drive on the other side of the road.
Taking a gap year or a year off to travel and work after high school is very common in other parts of the world. Here it’s treated with a little disappointment. But that’s changing too , I think.
As long as we keep moving forward, looking for open paths and stop worrying too much about the closed doors, we become resilient. We trust in our hard work and the abundance which follows.
What about the grads who just barely survived high school? I had one of those. For them, future plans aren’t talked about with starry eyes and lofty goals like I had. They literally just are relieved it’s over. Graduation means some peace. Anything will be better.
What I know is this: Here I am, thirty plus years after high school and it’s just a blip. My life has been full. High school started a love of always wanting to learn more, and gave me a foundation for wherever I went after. It jumpstarted my timeline of real life education.
A timeline which still isn’t finished yet, thankfully.
Love Jenn xx