Graduation

It’s that time of year again….graduation. High schools and colleges all over are holding these special ceremonies. In addition, middle schools, elementary schools, and preschools are holding Moving Up ceremonies as well. All of these events signify the end of one time in a person’s life and the beginning of another. These pivotal moments in our lives mean change. Sometimes that change is small and other times major decisions have to be made.

I’ll never forget watching the movie St. Elmo’s Fire when I was in high school. It was the first time I realized that there would come a time when I would have to make a huge decision about what to do with my life. Up until that point, my life had gone along as predicted, moving up each year to the next grade. I planned to go to college after high school, so I had already chosen that path and assumed it would happen. It wasn’t until I watched that movie about college friends graduating and trying to find their way in the world that I realized there was an end to the expected path. After college, there are no more school expectations. Just as the characters in the movie weren’t sure what to do, at 15 years old I had no clue what I wanted my life to look like after college. With so many choices, it can be overwhelming. 

Throughout my life, I have realized there is no one right path for everyone. I have repeated that to probably everyone I know, especially my children. There are some expected paths, but we have to choose the path that is right for us. The best part is, if we don’t like the path we choose, we can just choose another one! Allowing myself the freedom to change my mind meant I was usually pretty content with my decisions because I never felt trapped by them.

Yesterday, as I sat at a beautiful graduation ceremony, many thoughts went through my head as I remembered all of the graduations and moving-up ceremonies I have been to over the years, both for myself and others. The thought that kept coming back to me was that we all choose our paths. Graduation is a celebration of all of the hard work made along that particular chosen path. However, when one path ends, a new one begins, over and over and over.

After 30 years of teaching, I can say the most valuable thing I think I have ever taught students is to set goals and achieve them. Sounds simple, but I assure you it is not. Working towards a goal requires not just hard work, but reflection. It is the time for reflection that ensures we course correct when we falter. Teaching students to set goals also requires guiding them to plan specific ways they can reach those goals. These are some of the most important conversations teachers will ever have with their students. Thank you to all of the teachers who have had these conversations!  

To remind you that there is no one right path, I will leave you with the powerful words of Robert Frost, one of my all-time favorite poets. 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.