Dear Gradates,
Hi everyone! Yes, I am indeed writing yet another letter addressed to high school graduates outlining the fact that the past four years you have spent in high school were in fact not the most important of your life! Stay with me though, I really want to try to present this to you in a way that is not quite so demeaning; because I feel like it is no one's place to belittle your newfound achievement.
I graduated in 2013, so I am certainly not "wise" or "seasoned" but in my 3 years post-high school I have changed and experienced significantly more than I did in my 18 years as a grade school student. There is a shift that begins almost immediately once you exit the grounds of your high school for the final time. I want to be clear, this is not the change in which you shift from a child into an adult, this is more the shift of when you begin to make a ton of mistakes! Leaving home, and stepping into life with more independence than you have ever had is the beginning of a series of events I like to call "The Adult Tumbleweeds." You will feel so ready, and so invincible that mistakes will be made almost unconsciously! However, I do not want this to frighten you, because the tumbleweeds hold some of the most important lessons and precious memories of your lifetime.
High school is hyped up by our parents and the movies to be made into the most formative years of your life, and frankly, I cannot wrap my head around why this is still a thing! High school is a blip. Yes, a blip. The kids that bully and put down others will begin the slow sinking into insignificance, and those who have felt oppressed and ostracized will begin to find their place as soon as those caps are tossed into the air. High school is a nightmare, and it is a place where no one feels quite themselves. There is this constant anxiety to conform and blend and by the end of if, every student has lost a bit of their sparkle from trying so desperately to fit in. Well, I have good news for you class of 2016--it's time to win your sparkle back!
You've done it! You've tossed the stupid cardboard cap that they charged you money for as if it was worth anything! You've walked away from the stupid place where you never felt accepted you have done it! I want you to understand that you have in fact accomplished something! You have worked so hard, and went through so, so much to find your way through the quagmire of high school, and you have finally done it! I'm proud of you, your friends and family are proud of you, YOU should be proud of you--now move on!
Adulthood and independence is hard! It is difficult and painful but it is wonderful, and fun, and inspiring and it is SO much better than high school! Trash the notion that you have spent the last four years in the most important place of your life because you have not!
Go find your pack. Go find your place. Take on the world. Congratulations.
Love,
Soph
