Graduates, you are not the future; Your parents are your future

Schools are getting out. Students are desperately trying to use their final minutes to improve grades they spent a year building. Parents and teachers are watching the chaos, desperately wishing they could make decisions for their young adults because the adults know the consequences of wasted or under-utilized youth.

But alas, they can only observe and harangue, like spectators at the world’s most important sport in its most important game.

Despite what they are told, new graduates are not our future. We’re still writing that for ourselves just as students are. Heck, the adults are still more the new graduates’ future than the other way around. But we boost their egos and attach our dreams to them hoping against hope that they will learn from and avoid the mistakes we made and make better futures for themselves.

We wish we could make all decisions for them, because they’d be so much happier/wealthier/more productive. But to do so would be to deny their growth, their individuality, their need to fend for themselves. There’s probably something in the way God feels about free will in how parents feel about watching their kids make mistakes.

Students approach summer as escape from tedious school. Adults see them and are reminded of the seemingly endless freedom youthful summer represented and they sigh at their corrected memory of how very limiting, unrestricted school was. Then they blink and summer is over again.

Before you blink, make a family memory this summer. Collect the phones, tablets, and computers and spend time somewhere in Washington’s great outdoors. Whether you’re rained-out, mosquito bitten or have the perfect trip, you’ll never forget it and it will be an anchor for family memories for years to come.

Graduates, when you hear how special you are remember this: You’re special insofar as you overcome your deficiencies. If you are a natural sprinter and you’re fast, that’s not you, that’s your mom and dad. If you’re naturally fast and have disciplined yourself to be even faster, you’re on to something.

Same goes for the Valedictorian that has the best GPA. If you took the hardest classes and challenged yourself, then yes, you’re amazing. If it came easy to you, thank your parents.

In short, you will get from life, what you put into it.

Based on the image above, which is an actual doodle I found on the back of one of my student’s papers, perhaps I’ll need to be harsher next year. Looks like I’m going soft.