TO THE GRADUATES

Each year in this country, the doors of high schools open wide and the graduating class runs, walks, skips or saunters out to start practicing what they have learned over the last twelve years in school. It’s a process that has been repeated time and again all over this nation and I call it the great coming out. For many it’s just the culmination of the first twelve years of an education that will continue on for a few more years as they put on the finishing touches, toward a career they will embark on that will define them, for the rest of their lives. So it’s not the end but a beginning.

If you know what you want to do with the rest of your life at this tender age, then you are very lucky indeed because life is a smorgasbord and you have tasted very little of it. But hopefully your guardians and teachers have consoled you on this and you at least have a basic idea of what your choice is going to be all about. You have made an informed decision and now the process begins. A good many of you will change your minds many times in the next few years and that’s okay. To love what you do for your career, is a luxury not afforded to a lot of people. Look around.

I listened to two young people the other day telling me they both hope to be doctors when they grow up. They are in their younger teenage years and probably have little idea about the lives doctors live, the work they do and the commitment it takes to become one but right now there is nothing wrong to have that lofty goal. There is also nothing wrong with changing your mind as time goes on but at someplace in the next few years, at least for the graduates, push comes to shove and you must commit. Today’s world can have a way of hurrying you along in this process. Just remember whatever you do in life, you’re the one who has to be pleased.

Things will get in the way as you age so it’s important to get on the right path as soon as you can. Friendships become lovers and lovers become spouses and spouses beget children and responsibilities you never knew existed will come into play. But that’s the cycle of life. Your parents or guardians, who sheltered you and guided you for so many years, will become less and less a factor in your lives because they want you to grow your own wings now. Many of them will cut the cord with you and many of you will cut that cord yourself as you strive to become your own independent person and chart your own way for the rest of your life. Hopefully you know what you really want to be and have made some good choices.

I have three grandchildren who all have four-year degrees who don’t work in the fields they studied in. Was their education a waste? Not really because those unrelated degrees probably had a lot to do with the jobs they now have. I would caution you about one thing though and that’s try to not borrow a lot of money for school if you can help it. It’s easy to borrow and hard to pay back and that job your going to get right out of college. May not pay as much as you think for a while. I know I haven’t talked about those of you that have other plans such as the trades or the service. Whatever you do give it your all and someday you will reap the benefits of a good life, doing the things you always wanted to do.----Good luck and God bless.