It’s that time of year again when sheepskins and diplomas are stocking our communities.
Graduations can be fun and entertaining, provided it’s one of yours. If you know everyone in the neighborhood, you had better take a tranquilizer and a loan.
More than one ceremony I attended showed a graduate with hair over his eyes. He was wearing sunglasses and it’s no wonder he tripped going up the stairs. Beneath his cap and gown were an incongruous mix of shorts and sneakers.
The graduate is put on display and showcased for all to admire. It’s a little like patting yourself on the back or having everyone else do it for you.
They hand you an envelope and you may not see them again for four more years until the next commencement. Which might suit you just fine if you’re a private person.
It always bothered me to see a select group garner all the accolades at high school graduations while some unsung heroes went unnoticed. Experience tells me the person most likely to succeed gets caught in the shuffle and the one whose name you didn’t know winds up inside society’s golden dome.
What were once adolescents chumming around with your kids in youth hockey have now approached maturity ready to conquer the world. Where did the time go?
After sending three children through college—and covering local commencements for four decades—I’ve seen enough graduations to know that the real world of education begins now.
Probably the biggest chuckle I ever received at such an exercise didn’t come from the speaker’s podium but from down below, where graduates were blowing bubbles and playing with balloons.
These occasions at least had some levity. Most graduations became a little too stuffy for my tolerance. You’re apt to get poked in the eye with a Camcorder or jostled off your feet by the crowd. The car’s a mile away in the parking lot and you think about ducking out once your child gets a diploma.
We waited three hours in the scorching sun just to hear our son’s name announced. From where we were seated, we didn’t see him graduate from Tufts. We heard him graduate. The speaker that year was sports guru Ted Turner, but all eyes were on his actress wife Jane Fonda.
College commencements weren’t like high school where you had a bird’s-eye view from the steps of a stadium. I still get a little emotional when I hear Elgar’s “Pomp & Circumstance.”
A second son graduated from Bentley College in 2000 and Senator Ted Kennedy addressed the crowd. I recall hearing him tell students that an education shouldn’t stop at graduation, but begins a new cycle. Experience is the only school from which no one ever graduates.
Our daughter had the best speaker at Northeastern University. Humor columnist Erma Bombeck had us rollicking in the aisles. She said something that stuck with me to this very day:
“There’s a little good in everyone but it’s surprising how many there are carrying around the minimal amount.”
I recall the day I departed for college. I took a steamer trunk to hold my clothes and a shopping bag for miscellaneous items like an alarm clock, umbrella, radio, and tennis racquet. My father teased me about taking all those articles to school and arguing they weren’t all absolute necessities.
But when my children went off to college, they took a shopping bag to hold their clothes and a trunk for the miscellaneous, including a small refrigerator, full-component stereo set, television with VCR/DVD player, computer, 10-speed bike, recliner, hot plate, and a dictionary.
“You can’t take all that stuff,” I tried advising them. “How big do you think a dorm room is?”
“You’re right,” they said reluctantly. “We’ll have to sacrifice something.”
They gave up the dictionary.
Times do change and so do people. But some things remain steadfast. A high school diploma and college degree are still the greatest assets we have.
Education remains the foundation of success, even if many students graduate with blinders on and go looking for the easy road, quite often a dead end.
Tough as times can be with the frail economy and dour workplace, the task ahead remains monumental. For all the money invested into a college degree, it’s time to launch a career and stabilize your future.
My advice to every graduate is to walk the high road—don’t run. Take time to smell the roses and laugh a lot. Laughter alleviates stress and is not a bad beginning for securing friendship or a job.
With it, you can charm and coax, stimulate and take advantage of opportunities that may avail themselves.
But you still do need that dictionary.
Tom Vartabedian
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