I don't really think that I'll ever be asked to give a high school graduation speech, but if that happens, I think I know what I will want to say. It will go something like this:
Before we drove to my high school graduation ceremony, my dad and I were standing in the driveway waiting for Mom to come out of the house. She was inside triple checking that the party supplies and decorations would be ready for our guests and relatives when we returned from the school gym.
Leaning against the car, we both were watching the "Congratulations Brent!" sign lazily bumping against the house in the breeze. Dad wasn't much of a talker, so he surprised me when he broke the silence.
"Bud, I sure feel sorry for you."
"What for?"
"Well, high school is over. I just feel bad that your best days are behind you."
Back then I took my dad's word as gospel, but I joked that there was no way that going to school with the same 39 kids for four years constituted the best of anything.
Dad countered, "You got to suit up and play sports, you sang in the choir, and you played in the band. You took art and photography. You did all kinds of other things, and that's all over. Now all you have to look forward to is work."
That's a pretty dismal assessment, and looking back with a 26-year-long lens, I suspect Dad was beginning to show some early signs of his depression. But I know there are plenty of people who are not depressed and would have agreed with him.
But why? What's makes the high school years so special? Maybe it's because those four years can also be your formative years, and the rocky passage from adolescence to maturity is so memorable. But I don't know that for sure.
What I do know is that the average person living in the United States can expect to live 79 years. Only four of those years are spent in high school. Mathematically, high school is only five percent of your life.
When was the last time you bragged that you had a great five percent of anything?
How did your first marathon go? Well, early on I had 1.3 miles that were awesome!
Did you have a good spring break? Yes! One third of Tuesday was really fun.
In his song Glory Days Bruce Springsteen sings, "I had a friend was a big baseball player, back in high school", and later, "Well, there's a girl who lives up the block, back in school she could turn all the boys' heads." Despite its scant four years, high school still seems to be the reference point most often used when people talk about their "glory days".
So, if you had a great time in high school, I'm happy for you. If you were academically successful, you deserve a pat on your back. If your activity won an award, you earned a I at solo contest, or your team had a winning season, then "Go J-Hawks!"
But please don't smile too broadly, pat yourself too hard, or cheer too loudly. None of those things would have happened to you without the help, support, and love of the people who aren't wearing a graduation cap right now. You are standing on the shoulders of giants; giants who changed your diapers, wiped away your tears, and made sure you brought that graduation cap tonight.
And sadly, I can assure you that a successful high school career does not guarantee continued success down the road. You'll have to continue to earn it, and that will be even harder because your giants won't always be there to help you.
But what about the students who didn't think they were successful at UHS? For them high school wasn't fun. What about the kids who found the last four years painful? Or even a torment? To you, I say I'm sorry that happened, but please don't beat yourself up too hard. Remember high school is just five percent of your life, and that you, too are surrounded by people who love you.
Happily, like past success, past failure doesn't guarantee future failure. When I was a college junior home on winter break, I bumped into my high school art teacher at church. He asked me what I was going to do after college, and I told him I was thinking about a career in education. Without any hesitation or sarcasm, he asked me, "Why do the worst students think they can become teachers?"
I didn't know how to answer him, but I've been a teacher for 22 years, and no one has ever asked me what my GPA was in high school.
In about 20 minutes, your high school career, for better or worse, will be over. Like it or not, you'll leave here, and your high school reputation will not follow you. You will have the unique opportunity to reinvent yourself. And there is so much power in this opportunity. Don't waste it. Greet tomorrow by acting like the person you want to be. Every new person you meet will believe that is the person you are, and pretty soon you'll believe it, too.
Tomorrow can be magic.
26 years ago I shook my head at my dad, and I told him he was wrong. High school was certainly not going to be the highlight of my life. And it wasn't. I don't think I've hit my highlight yet.
Class of 2014, I hope you're excited that there's so much undiscovered territory to your lives, and I wish good luck to whomever you become.
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