Graduating: one of the most crucial transitions from one part of a person’s life to the next. The leaving behind of one’s past life to make way for a self-written, self-edited, and self-published future. I, Rachel Bass, will be ending an era in my life. An era in which, I found my best of friends, my worst of hardships, and, sometimes too often, the mellowest of ordinary days. And while those ordinary days seemed to move at tortoise pace, I now find myself amazed at how old I am and how far I’ve come in my life.
These thoughts among others flow freely through my mind as I look around the bedroom that merely showcases my childhood and adolescence. The transition is obvious to the naked eye. “Big girl” novels have replaced the children’s books that used to sit upon my shelves. My first school picture sits beside my last school picture. My coloring books have evolved into textbooks. The stuffed, synthetic, animal companions have been moved to the basement, and the old-fashioned pink floral wallpaper has been plastered with magazine cutouts, band posters, and quotes about life on construction paper.
I step back and take it all in; the bigger picture that embodies my existence. Am I really about to leave this all behind? This personal sanctuary that has taken years me to build?
And what about my family? Who is my dog Coco going to sleep with while I’m gone? Who is going to max out the memory on the DVR with reruns of Gossip Girl? Who is going to have tantrums over too much work and not enough sleep? WHO IS MY MOM GOING TO FIGHT WITH? And my friends? What happens to all the inside jokes and slang terms we made up? Who is possibly going to fathom the deeper meaning of the term “lax bro”?
But most importantly, who is going to truly understand me once I leave this town? I cannot imagine walking to class and not seeing the faces I grew up with. We have been on the same path for so long, it is bizarre to think I might not ever see some of these faces again after graduation.
And while I contemplate these notions once more, I see a different side of this whole realization. While we may all be moving on, we are also moving forward. We are shedding our cocoons and breaking away from the shackles of routine. The better part of our lives has been spent trying to pass society’s tests. Well, now it is time for change, and for society to give us a chance. Post-graduation, we have the ability to choose for ourselves what we think the next best step is. We have the chance to show the world what we can do, who we are, and who we have the potential to be. And in doing so, we have the power to map out the rest of our lives.
I will end with a quote from The Wonder Years,
“Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn't have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves... for growing up.”
So to all of the students graduating this year: I hope we embrace the closing of this door, and the opening of the doors to our futures. Fear nothing, because fear only holds us back in life. Take every opportunity by the reins, and steer yourself down the path of your choice. Because as the cliché goes, the end is just a new beginning.