Hat Tossed Graduates!

It's that time again!

Hats off to Graduates!

It's happening tonight in Pierce County!  And there have been staggered graduation events throughout the country, from pre-K to post-grad.  My friends in Michigan public schools still have a ways to go. and some colleges in Georgia have been over for a week or more.

The ceremonies are usually filled with pomp and circumstance (I think there may even be a song for that).  Underneath the gowns, people might be wearing dresses or suits, shorts and t-shirts, or nothing at all, There are speeches - some boring, some inspirational, some emotional.

Colleges most often have guest speakers.  This, I think, is a mistake.  Often the speeches are filled with meaningless bromides (work hard, seize the moment, keep looking on the bright side,etc.). There are speakers who think if you follow their recipe for success, you will be as successful as they are.  I have found out the hard way that there is no one path to success and happiness (and, stunningly, the two might not even be related).  And this year, there was at least one speaker who used his time to complain that nobody has been treated worse or more unfairly than he has.  But that is a tale for a different day and column.


I like it so much better when the students give their own speeches.  Especially when the school administration gives them wide latitude to express themselves.  This task most often falls to the class valedictorian, the one with the highest GPA in their class.  Very often, these well rounded students are also excellent speakers.  They are, however, not always familiar with the ground level experience of the average student in the school.  They don't always know what it's like to be in a place that doesn't always recognize your own struggles, or what it's like to be just another student.  Not everyone ranks near the top of their class.  Not everyone is a part of a winning team.


One of the best commencement speech ideas, one that I was lucky enough to be a part of, was done way back in ancient times when I was in high school.  They had an open competition to be a commencement speaker.  They selected the top three, and I was fortunate enough to be qualify.  I certainly wasn't going to get to speak if it went to the class valedictorian.

The other two speeches were very forward looking, about the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.  Mine was not.  I told them that this was a special time in their lives that they would never return to, so they best remember it and cherish it, both the good times and the bad.   I identified people by name, recalling things about them that made people laugh and smile.  This was a special microcosm, a little independent world, in-which they were now leaving forever.  Some would never hold the place in the broader world that they held there.  The cheerleader and football player may never have another place where they are pedalstalized and adored as much as they were in high school.  The nerd that was despised might go on to employ a bunch of them.  And there were people they felt close to that would float out of their lives, never to return, or just be someone you passed in the supermarket and thought, "I know that person from somewhere, don't I?"


Cherish your school memories.  The good and bad are all over now, but they will help shape you for the rest of your life.

Move forward, but remember.

It was a special place and time.