High school graduation season is upon us which means lots of tears as well as cheers. It's the culmination of everything you've been working towards and marks a huge transition in your life. The new graduates will go on to college, to trade schools, to work or even to serve the country. For me graduation means growing up. You and your parents have to accept that you aren't the little kid you used to be. I'd like to dedicate this poem to all the graduates this year. Here's to you and everything you've done and everything you will do.

Growing Up

Growing up is messy.

You figure things out through trial and error

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction:

If you splash your brother,

Then he will splash you back harder

If you hit your sister,

Then she will chase you around the house until she hits you back

-

Growing up is painful.

You learn from your mistakes

Like the time you touched a pan in the oven

And burned your hand

Or when you shaved for the first time

And had no clue what you were doing

-

Growing up is change.

Changing bodies and changing friends

New clothes and new music and new shows

You move from one school to the next until you get to decide where to go

And summers morph from camps and play dates to work and actual dates

You get handed more responsibilities and decisions

-

Growing up is loss.

Loss of innocence and loss of wonder

You learn that Santa doesn’t exist and how your uncle stole your nose

You lose friends to stupid fights and your differing cliques

You have to leave behind your barbies and Thomas the trains

And you might even lose who you used to be

-

Growing up is leaving.

Leaving your childhood home

And beginning on the next phase of your life

You have to learn to live on your own and not rely on your parents

You have to leave behind what was holding you back

Because you can’t grow when something is dragging you down

-

Growing up is slow.

You wait your whole entire life to go to school

To be able to read and tell time

To learn how to ride a bike

To be double digits

To stay home alone

To be a teenager

To go on your first date

To have your first kiss

To be able to drive a car

(And then to be able to drive it alone)

To have no curfew and no one to answer to

To walk across the stage and get your diploma

-

Growing up is fast.

One, two, three, four, five, six…

An epic that’s actually a stanza

Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve...

A marathon that’s actually a sprint

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen...

An eternity that’s actually a second

And before you realize what’s happening

And can yell STOP

It’s over...

And all you can do is remember