Advice from a friend for graduates

Well class, the time has come. The time to become an adult, to make your own decisions and time to be on your own. You have been awaiting and dreaming a long time for this and it is now here. It seems like only yesterday that you were sitting in Mrs. Gilman’s ISS for chewing gum and it WAS only yesterday that you sat in Mrs. Nichols’ for, um, chewing gum. Some lessons are hard to learn.

Lessons. It seems like your entire career has been a life of lessons so far. Stand in a straight line. Don’t talk in class. Don’t stick things in your mouth and clean out your desk. All lessons that led to more lessons. Lost assignments, lost lunches, lost friends and just being lost became commonplace as you matured. Then puberty hit everyone and all heck broke loose in every aspect of your life.

Some excelled as life got harder and harder but some struggled and had harder lessons to learn. But take a breath, because this Saturday you will be sitting on stage, in the heat, like generations before you, looking at family sweating in the crowd and you will have a smile on your face. The smile is probably because a Rosenbaum just said something funny or because Savanah is trying desperately to still get kicked out, this time because the heat is causing her to melt and she has snakes to kill. Regardless, this is the time you have worked your whole life for, so far, and abounding joy and relief are finally here.

There is one thing you must always remember. You still have some learning to do. Whether you are bound for the next level of school, or the military or the workforce, the learning never stops. A wise man once said that the day you stop trying to learn something new is the day you die. Another wise person said that the day you stop trying to succeed is the day our community fails.

So what does that mean to you? Well, that means that when you stop trying to be a better person, then failure damages us all. In this world we live in there are some pretty scary things happening out there and much scarier things in the future. Guess what? It is you who will have to deal with those crises. Even if it is just explaining it to your own child, you will still have to deal with it. So how do you survive a world that seems to be spinning towards disaster daily? Well, the answer is in the simplest of ideas but the hardest to maintain. That answer is Faith.

Faith in society, faith in mankind, faith in our country and faith in yourself are all good places to start, but I am speaking of one other faith that will save your life time and time again. Faith in your Creator. Trust me, you will all hit a brick wall or rock bottom sometime in your life. Some will hit it time and time again, and if you cling to that simple idea, there will always be hope and promises for you.

So if I could give one piece of advice to all graduates, it is this. Do not make Octavio mad. No, that’s not it. Don’t make Schilling mad. Nope, wrong again. Never forget the Harmony. OK, that is still not it. How about this: Have faith that there is a higher power at work in your life and go seek Him. Cling to Him. Yes, rough times are coming, but you will have something that cannot be defeated on your side. I’m just saying.