So last week, the Outlook High School Class of 2018 held their graduation ceremonies. Another “bunch o’ Blues” have left the hallways and now they have the rest of their lives in front of them.
I remember my high school grad back in 2004. That was when OHS still held them with a couple of weeks left of school and before final exams. Personally, I have to say that I prefer the new schedule of events these days where grad is *officially* the last school event of the year. I imagine it also amplifies the emotions that come with graduating and leaving it all behind as the next chapter of your life stands before you.
A couple of years ago, as my niece Chantel was graduating up in Saskatoon, I wrote something on Facebook that is similar to what you’re about to read, but I thought I’d once again share a few anecdotes and pieces of advice that you young folks can take or leave about life as it relates to the end of your high school years.
- Accept the fact that you’re going to lose touch with a very significant portion of your classmates, even with social media connecting virtually all of you. Don’t look at this as a bad or sad thing per say, it’s just that people will eventually be pulled in different directions than you may be headed. We all have our paths to carve, and honestly, life will have a way of pulling you back together if it’s intended.
- Don’t be surprised if you may even lose touch with a few people who you consider to be best friends right now within the next few years. Hey, it happens. You form these relationships with people through your younger years and you go through so much together, but once school is out and once again those different directions start to pull, you just drift apart until you end up just being friends on Facebook who simply refer to the “good ole days”. I have to admit, this one is sadder than I intended to make it sound.
- The people who are meant to be in your life *will be* in your life, I promise you. Three out of the five guys who were my best friends in high school are my best friends to this day; guys who I’d go to Hell and back with. Luckily, there are some bonds in this world that can’t be broken with the passage of time.
- When you encounter an old teacher in public, that instinct to address them as Mr. or Mrs. will always be there. That’s just respect knocking at your brain. To this day, it just feels unnatural to me when I’m calling a favorite teacher by their first name. Mr. McPhail isn’t ‘John’ to me, he’s Mr. McPhail, and Mrs. Adelman isn’t ‘Bea’ to me, she’s Mrs. Adelman. These dedicated people, who weren’t our parents and probably were glad in some cases, helped shape you into the adult you’re about to become, so that instinct to address them by their title will likely carry with you for a very long time.
- Life is a marathon, not a race. Don’t bury yourself in trying to do THIS, THIS and THAT within a short timeframe to the point where you’re missing out on life itself. Appreciate the little things and don’t worry about trying to map out your life over the next 10, 15, or 20 years. Go do the things that young people are supposed to do while you’re still in your teens. You’re still a kid, so don’t be afraid to act like it.
- In one way or another, the universe will have a way of telling you where you’re supposed to end up in life. For some, that might be in another country, or in another province, or in another city. For others, that might mean sticking to home, and that’s okay too. I had dreams of being a filmmaker out of high school and even lived in British Columbia for eight months going to film school. Ultimately, things didn’t pan out the way I thought they would and I ended up taking a part-time job at the local paper here at home, where I wound up with an interesting, educational, and life-changing career in weekly news journalism that has now been 11 years and counting. If you want to live somewhere else, that’s cool. But all I’m saying is you *can* go home again.
Your life now awaits. The rest of your story is up to you.
Congratulations to all the graduates of 2018.
PS. OHS Class of '04 still rules...
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.