Ron: Graduation advice for when you’re leaving high school

Here we are in the middle of graduation season. Many of you are preparing to sit in sweaty, uncomfortable clothes while hundreds of names are read in alphabetical order. Please hold your applause till the end.

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Then you’ll hear the speeches. Most of them are inspirational in nature, encouraging the bright-eyed grads to follow their passions and live their best life. But remember how hard it was to find your place in this world? Remember all the crappy jobs and late night soul searching sessions you had from your late teens till, well, now?

If you’re in the position to be gifting something to a new grad this year, I have a suggestion: If you can swing it, empower your grad to just live a little. Take a trip somewhere and have an experience or two. Wander around a place with no agenda for a while. Decompress for minute and just exist. Let the grad’s mind remember what it was curious about before it became obsessed with test scores and college applications.

Every time I attend a graduation and reflect on 17-year-old me, my biggest regret is that I was in such a rush to get into college. What was the hurry? I wish more than anything else that I would have found a way to take a break and go somewhere and experience something. While Albuquerque is a fine place to grow up, it’s not necessarily the Mecca for world culture. I’m trying to make up for it now, but it’s not the same as seeing the world through the lens of youth.

Bad graduation advice

The other major theme at most graduations is that you need to find your passion and follow it at all costs. It’s the notion that there is one thing that everyone is destined to do with their life.

I call B.S. Who needs that kind of pressure? I’ve had dozens of passions and interests and failed projects over the years. This myth has somehow seeped into the popular consciousness. Really? Every graduate should find the thing that lights their fire and then make that their profession? It is delusional at best and harmful at worse. Sometimes you have to pay the bills and then do your passion project on the side. You’re going to have to get on some hamster wheel, just try and pick the right hamster wheel.

And when you make a mistake and realize, “holy crap, I actually don’t want to be a lawyer!” then move on quickly.

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It’s the experiences that count. Does anyone sit around the campfire and reflect on how great their schedule was their freshman year of college? Go and collect experiences with people you like to be around. They can be big or small, that part doesn’t matter.

And if you’re now the middle-aged person like me and you realize that you jumped right onto the hamster wheel and poof, it’s now 30 years later.

It’s not too late for you.

Go do that thing you’ve always wanted to do. The only thing stopping you is yourself. You won’t regret it.

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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