The best place to be during a graduation is with the seniors lining up before the ceremony.
There was a positive energy, with a hint of happy anxiety, that filled the air at last night’s graduation. The students were beaming. Of course, there were a couple seniors whose body language and attitude showed that they were there only to go through the motions, but the vast majority of students were excited. It was infectious. And as the seniors (and us teachers) entered the church for the commencement ceremony, you could feel even more energy from their family and friends.
As I told some of my (now former) students, high school graduation was not so much for yourself, but more for your family and friends. Your college graduation will be for you. Throughout elementary and high schools, your family had been there with you and for you. Your parents made you go to school. They were there for the good times and the bad. Most of your friends had been with you too for the last four years, and many of them longer than that. High school graduation becomes a celebration of everyone’s achievement to see you through school. College, on the other hand, is your accomplishment. You have to work for that graduation. Sure, your family and friends will support you, but it is only up to you to see to it that you make it through college. So, high school graduation is for your family; college graduation is for yourself.
So, bon voyage to the Class of 2003. I wish you well on your journey through life. I pray for each and everyone of you to have a long, happy, prosperous life in the light and love of the Lord.