On Your Graduation

Would be a good thing if commencement addresses could be positive and help grads get a good sned off for later life. So many times they have some State Educational Official who couldn't escape his or her officialese enough to communicate.
In addition, most of the graduations I have attended lately, even at a collegiate level, are circuses. I've never heard so much stupid hollering and screaming, sounds more like a Rock Concert than a serious occasion to honor folks who have achieved something. More of the breakdown of respect in this  culture I suppose. Ach! You Americans!

[nerdneh]

A Message for Graduates
This time of the year features the commencement address.  Multitudes of words will be poured out by guest speakers upon hapless graduates and their proud parents.  Relax!  Graduation is something to celebrate and celebrations have featured speakers since the time of the ancient Greeks.  I hesitate to add to that lengthy total of words, but the occasion requires that something be said.  I want you, as a graduate, to know that we who are your parents or your older friends, are proud of you!  We are proud because you have completed something of great value.  That's where the emphasis is--you have finished something.  At times the temptation to drop out no doubt entered your head.  In moments of weakness and stress, it may have seemed the course to take.  Yet, you resisted that pressure.  You didn't run off to California and become a beach bum, nor did you drop out and get that hot job bagging groceries for a living down at the local supermarket.  Even though these directions might have offered some solace to you when you were burdened down with English papers and research projects in science.  You finished what you started!

Graduating doesn't mean you will now face the real world.  Actually, you've been facing the real world all along, and you have been deciding whether you will do well in it or poorly in it.  The most important thing now is that you will continue to face it with one more advantage than a lot of folks.  That is, you decided to finish one period of your education.  Folks will know you can stick to something and finish it up satisfactorily.  That's living in the real world.

What will you face in the world after your graduation?  The same things, the same people you faced before you graduated!  Some of your teachers were fair and helpful, some were not as fair, and not very helpful.  Some of your friends were good for you and some were not.  You will face the same sort of people in your college courses or in your work situation.  You will discover that some of the people you made into heroes have let their haloes get a little tarnished.  You will find people who will gladly sacrifice integrity for popularity, acceptance for principles, and short cuts for hard work.  In other words, the same kind of people will be in your life as have always been in your life.  Only now, you should be able to make some choices as to which will influence you and which will not.

One significant difference you will find in college, and probably in your work as well, is that you will be left on your own more than in high school.  Whether you are responsible or irresponsible is going to be more and more a matter for you to choose.  At most colleges you will not be hounded to attend or study.  If you decide to spend time goofing off and hanging around, probably nobody will turn you in.  At that rate, you'll probably survive only until Mid-Terms.  But, it's your choice.

You will discover that you may be able to mess around at work, if that's where you end up after graduation.  You'll get away with it for awhile, but sooner or later you will receive the inevitable 'pink slip' or the 'ax' or the ol'' 'heave-ho' and it'll be Sayonara to your job.  In other words, I'm trying to tell you that you'll have to be a lot more of a self-starter than you have been up til now.  That's part of the pain and joy of growing up.

Some significant things have been going on for you to be graduating at this time in your life.  A lot of people have invested in you up to this point, and the next little while is going to determine if their investment has been good or bad.  You are finishing, but in a way, you are beginning.  You will be starting another road soon, but that's how life is, you're always finishing something and starting something else.  It's called maturing, and you never get through with it.

With some of the hard choices facing you, and some of the difficult decisions you have to make, you will need all the help you can get.  I have a friend I'd like to recommend to you.  He's qualified to help you complete what's important, choose the best pathway and sticking with your choice.  His name is Jesus.  With His help this good beginning will certainly result in a wonderful journey through life as well as a happy ending to life as we know it here.  Remember, in Jesus you not only have a life worth living, you also have a future worth living for!

Your friend,

Yes, Gus, how have graduations turned into such "circuses?" I suppose the students feel it is a good outlet for their enthusiasm and joy at seeing their friends accomplish something. That's my positive spin on the process.