| 6/01/2005 |
LEARN TO FLY by Foo Fighters
|
or... POMP & CIRCUMSTANCE by Elgar
I am back from my Memorial Day Weekend trip to see my brother's high school graduation. The whole family tree thing is complicated so just go with what I tell you and I can make a flow chart later if needed. There were quite a few people staying in the same household. Which is ok because it is a good sized house. Ok. Brace yourself and concentrate. In attendance were my brother (obviously), his little sister (half-sister), his mother, step-father, step-father's father and step-mother, step-father's mother and step-father, step-aunt, and myself. Ok... Confused yet? Anyway...
I typically make the 11 hour drive to see him. I like to drive. I like the drive. So I don't mind the time it takes to get there. Yet, this time I chose to fly. Simply because of the amount of time I would have to spend if I didn't. Overall, I don't mind flying. I love being able to look at the window and see the ground so far below. It reminds me of playing Sim City. You can see the patterns the farmers make in their fields. You get to see the patchwork of farms that blanket the countryside. It really is beautiful.
The downside to all that beauty is the take-offs and landings. Any bit of turbulence and I am clinching on to the arm rests so tightly that I'm pretty sure I could snap it off the seat rather easily. I had a connection flight down to Kentucky and back. So four times I was blessed with experiencing the joy's of take-offs and landings. That slow roller coaster feel of hurtling tens of thousands of feet into the air only to descend once again. At least on a rollercoaster it's over in a fraction of a second. The bumps and drops a plane makes would just about do me in. I definitely try to go to my happy place when this happens. Luckily, all four flights were relatively smooth. Only the last leg of my flight into Omaha really gave me any serious anxiety. Coming out of a cloud bank and then SUDDENLY seeing the ground was not the way I felt like landing. Could you guess that I never wanted to be a pilot growing up?
The graduation was good. He went to a larger school than I did and had about three and a half times more kids than I had in my class. Whereas my two hour graduation was filled with choirs singing songs and high ranking classmates giving speeches, my little brother's graduation was mainly filled with watching the kids walking in and get their diploma. Many folks showed up to see their child get their diploma and left right away to beat the traffic. I can't say that I blame them, when you have a few hundred cars all deciding to leave at once.
I took plenty of pictures that I will share once I get them uploaded.
For the most party I made it through the ceremony pretty well. I'm a sap. I love being a sap. I really only broke down when my little brother walked off the stage after receiving his diploma. "That's it," I thought to myself. He's done now. I have mentioned before how it can make me feel older when I really start to think about how I can remember a time before he was born. Yet, to see him graduate... It's not 'old' that I feel, it's proud.
You could say that proud is how you are supposed to feel. Yet, I don't know that everyone does. I don't know if everyone at that ceremony really cared if the person they were there to support graduated or not. I live for landmark moments like that. I think they are very defining points in a persons life. I remember my last day of school and sitting on the back of my car. I sat in the parking lot and just stared at my school, trying to take as much of it in as I could one last time before driving away and not having to go back for another class. I loved the excitement of knowing that I had graduated high school and walking up on stage to get my diploma. I relive the feeling when someone I care about graduates.
Switching gears for a moment. I would love to hear someone who graduated 10 years ago get up and give a speech to the graduates. I would love to hear someone step up to the microphone and give a very weathered and 'realistic' viewpoint of what happens after graduation. I don't think I'm being cynical when I say this. I am just reflecting on what has happened to me and most people that I know, after graduation. Some go off to college. Some start families right away. Some join the military. I would love to hear someone get up and give a speech about that percentage of graduates that end up doing A, B, or C after graduation. Not in a downer sort of way. Graduations are supposed to be a celebratory occasion. They could do it in a way that was still uplifting, but honest.
Not everyone will go to college. Not everyone will be the doctor or lawyer they wanted to be when the filled out their college applications. Some people will work long hours in unpleasant work conditions. Some people will go through many low-paying jobs before finding what they feel there are good at doing. What matters is being able to find happiness in your life and what you choose to do. Whatever that choice is. Be happy that you weren't accepted to your first choice college. You may meet your one-day spouse at your second choice college. Remember the bonds that you have with your friends from high school. They can be a part what gets you through the tough times when you feel lonely while away from home at an out-of-state university. Be thankful that not everyone moved away after graduation. When you come back to town, make every effort to get back in contact with them and establish or reaffirm bonds.
If you can look back at your years after high school and you're happier than you were when you were in high school. You probably doing something right. Write it down for a day when you when you don't feel like things are going your way.
Congratulations Nick and the rest of the Class of 2005! I'm so very proud of you! |
|
I posted this @ 6/01/2005 02:40:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
|
|
|
|
|
|
