Gifts for Grads

[AFK]

...And so once again it is graduation season.  This year it hits a little closer to home for me then it has in the past.  That's because my youngest bro is leaving the esteemed halls of the same High School I graduated from.  And so it has me thinking, what can I tell him before he heads off to college.  What little nugget of advice can I bestow upon him that will be of some use to him? 

So I've pondered and I think this is what I've come up with.

Find yourself.  And do it, yourself. 

The period of time between age 18 and age 25 is an awfully awkward time.  You're too young to be a "real" adult and you are too old to be a kid.  You are expected to be irresponsible and daft.  But, yet, at the sametime, you are expected to move your life forward.  To be what it was you were meant to be.  Whatever that is.

Of course, the thing is, there are so many during this time who will subtely, or not so subtley, tell you exactly who you should be.  It might start with the parents.  Telling you to go to college, get straight A's, buckle down, and become a successful Doctor, Lawyer, Marine Bioligist, whatever and make lots of money.  If you don't stay on the "straight and narrow", and they will clearly define this for you, then you will be doomed to miserable failure.  And of course you have many elements of society reinforcing this.  When was the last time you heard of an Accounts Payable employee being portrayed as a sexy beast getting all the chicks/guys and living the high life. 

Then you've got another element which is the college campus itself.  There are models of how you are supposed to act and supposed to do if you want to be part of the community.  If you don't want to be ostracized as one of the freak fringe.  To have a fun college existence, there are certain components that must be in place.  You've gotta go to all of THE parties.  If you haven't ingested or inhaled at least three different kinds of chemicals in your first year you are a miserable failure of a college student.  There are other pressures as well from fellow college students, the opposite gender, college faculty and administration, all wanting to guide you their way through the 4 years or so that you are going to be there.

But really, this is the chance for you to find who you are.  It's a chance when you have so many resources at your disposal to enrich yourself and to refine what it is that YOU want to get out of this existence on this hunk of space rock.  I think one key is to hold on to yourself as much as possible while still exhibiting the personal freedom to explore the unknowns.  To not put on blinders and hide yourself away from everyone else, but to stock up on the arms of recognition and clarity.  To know what is best for you vs. what is thought to be best for you.

And the thing is, it doesn't stop when you leave college.  There will always be those who think they need to guide and corrall people.  To lead them on the right path or the righteous path or the gold-plated American Dream path.  So, it's in this crucible of young adulthood that it becomes so important to get a hold of, you.  To maintain that inventory of integrity that is only accessible to you. 

Because if you leave the next step in education with someone else's vision other than your own, you WILL get lost. 

[Dr. Cow Ass]

Thanks for that, I'll take the advice to heart. I begin college at Bowling Green State University in late August.