This post is written in conjunction with the 30 Days of Writing, a blog challenge devised by Nicky and Mike at “We Work For Cheese.” I’ll be participating throughout the month of June. If interested, you can see my post with the details of the challenge.
Please note that some of these posts will be serious, some will be normal, and some will be an attempt at humor.
This post is also being used for the Dude Write weekly submission. Go check out their blog to see other dudes who blog. Do it!
This is one of those topics that has had me scratching my head from the beginning.
I could talk about being on a lobster boat or whale watch during a vacation to Maine a few years ago. I could talk about my first couple of times in a kayak a few weeks back.
Alas, I’m going to make this a little shorter and sweeter.
We’re coming upon graduation weekend in our area for high schools. I know some others around the country are the same and I know some have already happened. But, in my current time as an unemployed person in an economy that is cruel to many, I’ve decided to prepare myself as a guest speaker at some high school that was extremely desperate for a speaker, so I got called… (*note that this high school does not exist!)
****
Graduates of the Class of 2012, I commend you on getting through the first part of your life — the high school years. Now you are setting sail on the most important part — the time when you decide which ocean you want to cross and figure out your path.
During these years, you’ve no doubt grown a lot. Maybe you’re part of the popular jocks crowd. Maybe you keep to yourself with your nose in a book. Maybe you’re that social butterfly who went to every event possible. Some of you out there were in the band. Or sat outside in the parking lot talking about trucks and cars. Some of you likely gushed over prom dresses and flowers. Others stuck it out in the computer lab. Among you are likely bullies and bullied; clean-cut kids and those who like to experiment; and just the average Joes who look to get by under the radar.
No matter who you are and no matter your social standing in high school, it’s over now.
The days of trying to pick a fight with someone is completely over, unless you want to end up in the crowbar motel. Gone, or should be, are the days of harassment, bullying, and anything else that could be construed as illegal in the eyes of our society.
Mark my words, some of you will likely wander down the wrong path. Though as much as I hope you won’t, some of you will. That’s a fact.
The world is a tough place. It’s not the same as it was in, say, the 1950s or 1960s when the country was still growing. Jobs nowadays are tough to come by. With things being outsourced and cuts continuing to happen, the unemployment rate is still at an awful level.
College education costs a whole heap more now, too. Prepare for student loans to follow you for much of your life.
Some jobs, which were thought of to be stable and safe — such as teaching — aren’t as stable and safe, even with tenure. It’s competitive our there. Not only will you eventually be competing with those who you graduated with — in high school and, in the future, college — but with others who are more experienced and will be looking for jobs at the same time.
Enough of the doom and gloom, however. You’ll experience the low parts of life. Everyone does. But it’s not to get you down.
Don’t join the ranks of those who get in the “whoa is me” crowd. No matter what happens, you’ll get through it. There is always something worth fighting for. Your friends. Your family. A cold one on a hot summer night. The view of a sunrise or sunset. Seeing a field of wild flowers slowly being blown by the wind.
Life is ups and downs.
Stay strong in your beliefs. Do the right thing. If you are a good person, hopefully good things will happen. I can’t guarantee this. I wish I could, but I can’t. After all, bad things do happen to good people.
But still try to be a good person.
Stay active. Be involved. Work hard. These are all things that teenagers out of college need to have in their heads. These are cliche-type statements, but they are oh so true.
Not everyone will be rich.
Not everyone will have things happen to them that are good.
Not everyone will be fully successful in life.
These are hurtful truths, I know. But they are also truth. We can’t sugar-coat what the real world is like.
But work at it. Stay happy. Stay positive. If you do enough things right, eventually opportunities will open up to you and you’ll be going down the right path in life.
My wish is happiness and success for all of you. And I hope, if all the right paths are taken, you’ll look back many years from now and realize you lived an amazingly fruitful life.
Now push that boat out into the water. Set sail and never look back. The horizon is bright, big and ready for you. Head to it and take it over!
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!
I wish I had heard a speech like this when I graduated from high school. I think both of my kids left home at 18, my son went into the Navy and my daughter went to college in Santa Barbara. (Well, she enrolled anyway. I don’t think a class was ever attended.) Still, the kids did fine. After the Navy, John went to college and then to law school. He’s a partner in a law firm now. My daughter and her husband own a “security” company. Sometimes we have to take wrong paths to find the right one. I did a lot of that. Wonderful post, P.J.
Linda Medrano recently posted..Setting Sail
Every graduation speech I hear is candy and cake. It’s so unrealistic!
P.J. recently posted..Train coming
I think you should send this around to some of the schools in your area, even if they haven’t asked you to speak. I think the graduates need to hear an honest take on their futures. I really enjoyed this, P.J.
Nicky recently posted..The Rhyme Of The Modern Mariner
I would love to see the looks on the faces of administrators if they allowed me to do a graduation speech!
What a great speech… well thought out and honest!
Well done!
Barb recently posted..Day 18: Setting sail
Thank you!
OK. I am DYING. I just went through our first graduation. This is an AMAZING post. AMAZING speech. I have no words!
Katherine recently posted..A Weekend In Corolla
Thanks! I wish I could actually speak it to grads!
🙂 Nice one! I love this:
“Now push that boat out into the water. Set sail and never look back. The horizon is bright, big and ready for you. Head to it and take it over!”
Very beautifully said 🙂
Lady in Red recently posted..Donating Blood & Clarification
Thank you! I just wish I had a graduation where I could say this in front of many going out into the world!
Great speech. With my oldest recently graduating, he is embarking on the “real world” where teachers don’t always teach, bullies are rarely caught and life in general isn’t fair. He has had an internship for the last year in his chosen field and he doesn’t quite get how lucky he is. I’m going to point him your way.
WG
WilyGuy recently posted..I’m ( )ER Than You!
Thanks! And you are right. The “real world” is a lot different than school. I hope if your son stops by to read it, he gets something out of it!
Back to that real world stuff… I remember in college having one professor basically paint a picture that somebody coming out of there with a journalism degree (not even a well-known program) would be able to land jobs at very large papers. He had some people believing it so much that one kid swore when he came out of college he’d have an offer at the NY Times.
As educators, people can’t allow that kind of thought. To have them aim for that — eventually — is awesome. To have them think it’s a guarantee is just bad teaching.
Side note, last I heard, that person wasn’t even working in newspapers. Chalk that one up to reality.
P.J.
Nicely done my friend. I can’t recall one thing anyone said at my graduation. Granted, it was… wow… 24 years ago, but likely it contained a bunch overly used and rarely useful information that can be found at every high school graduation across the country from this time to that.
But you did touch on something that I experienced with my daughters when they were in high school – more often than I care to recall – and that is the drama and clicks. I was so happy when my youngest daughter graduated, and not just because she was about to start a new chapter in her life, but because all the superficial drama that comes with high school would be over. I preached that to both of them constantly as they dredged through high school.
Funny enough, a few months after my youngest graduated, she came up to me and said, “Dad, you were right. My life is so much better now that I’m out of high school. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be done with all of those stupid drama.”
I was a proud Papa.
Enjoyed it P.J., and you touched on a lot of topics the kids need to hear yet rarely do.
Michael A. Walker
Defying Procrastination
I don’t disagree. I don’t remember anything from high school. As for college, all I remember is for my undergrad, they had some president from another college who went on and on and on for like 20 minutes. It was nearing 85-90 degrees and we were in black gowns/caps. Way too hot and way too boring.
I’m a firm believer that a short and to the point speech drives the point home.
As for your daughters, kudos to them realizing the drama is just that.
P.J. recently posted..Train coming
Hear hear, man – great speech! Any chance they can actually get you to speak to the graduates? I’m sure there are many who’d need to hear it!
Daniel Nest recently posted..Awards galore
I wish there was the chance to do that. I’d speak it any chance I got. I will tuck it away in case I ever do get to speak at a graduation ceremony!
Nice speech
My school could have needed something like that. There were very few teachers who cared, and some were just drunk all the time.
Rusty recently posted..50 is the new… wait…. no, 50 is still just 50
I think I could have used it when I graduated!
P.J. recently posted..Train coming
Fantastic speech! Very inspiring! My kids are nowhere near graduating high school but I still try to teach them at an early age that life isn’t all peaches and cream. It’s tough and bad things happen.
I believe that when you shelter and pamper your child it will only make life harder when they finally face the harsh realities of life.
Like my best friend for instance. Just this past weekend I had a party, one I had been planning for months. Well he didn’t come because his kid was whining because he didn’t want to stay at grandma’s house. Who is the parent here? Where is the authority? It lies with 6yr old boy!
I woulda made the kid stay, whether he wants to or not. I’m the boss kid and that’s how life goes! That and when your best friend is expecting you at a party, you show up….no excuses!
workingdan recently posted..My Claim to Manhood
Thanks so much! Life definitely isn’t all peaches and cream. I was never sheltered and for that, I’m thankful. Life is tough, but if you fight right and hard, it can be won!
And I have seen the situation you talk about with your friend. Sometimes, kids need to just deal with it. Life happens, right?
By the sound of it, you’d make a great speaker at a graduation!
Michael D’Agostino recently posted..My Rules for Life
I hope one day I’d get the chance to dust this one off!
You know, schools really should ask people like you to speak. Why hear a celebrity talk about how great life ended up being when they can hear the truth about what life is really like, and what ends up being important.
Youngman Brown recently posted..You Fall Asleep… Now!
And I would be more than happy to go and speak at schools. It’s like that “Sunscreen” song/speech from a few years ago. Telling how it is makes the speech more worthy. Thanks for the comment!