For many years, I kept all the writing my 7th and 8th-grade students had completed, and they received this folder of memories before they departed school their senior year. It has always been a joy to watch them look through the stories and essays they had composed four or five years earlier.
“I can’t believe how terrible this is!” is a common refrain. “How did I ever get a good grade on this?” is another.
It’s great that these are typical reactions. That’s not because the students were not good writers. They might have been for junior high. The fact that they recognize it’s not good writing as part of the big picture is encouraging; it means they’ve improved!
This is an important lesson as another group of seniors prepares to graduate from NRHEG. The class of 2013 is just like so many others before them: full of hope and promise, yet scared for what awaits them in that dreaded place they’ve heard about all these years known as… the real world!
The true hope of this class and all future classes should be that in four or five or 10 or 30 years, they can look back on these years just like they do their junior high writing. “Wow, really? I sure have changed/improved!”
Many people say high school was the best four years of their lives. They sure were at the time. However, four years of college replaced those previous years pretty quickly. The first four years of a job are exciting. The first years of marriage, the first years of having children, the first years of retirement: these are all things that can rapidly change one’s outlook on “the best four years.”
High school is a wonderful time for establishing a base of your personality, your likes and dislikes, and your future goals. However, these can be ever-changing. How many of us can truly say we never changed in high school or never pretended to be something we weren’t for the purpose of fitting in? Not this columnist!
The fantastic part of a college experience, be it two years or four years, public or private, university or community college, is that there is always a group of people you will find that you fit with well. You really don’t have to pretend to be someone else anymore. If some people you’re around doesn’t like you for who you are, you’re bound to find a group who does.
The summer after my freshman year at Winona State, I returned to New Ulm for one last hurrah before fully moving out on my own. I had a few of my high school friends comment that they hardly recognized me (and it wasn’t just because I finally figured out long hair wasn’t going to bring the ladies flocking to me).
I had finally become comfortable with being the goofy, slightly strange person I am today. I wasn’t afraid to voice my opinion for fear that someone would not like my thoughts. I had found a group of friends in Winona that respected me, even if we didn’t always agree on various topics. We had some fascinating discussions along the way, and I know that being exposed to all those ideas helped me become a more well-rounded person.
Become who you are. Discover your true self. Some of you are well on your way. Others perhaps have a way to go. No matter what, I hope you have some amazing experiences so you never have to sit at a class reunion and say, “Wow, life has never been as good as it was in high school.”
Graduates, look ahead with anticipation. Be eager for what’s to come. Be most eager to continually find ways to redefine “the best four years” of your lives! Best of luck! And don’t forget if you ever need a paper proofread, you know my e-mail!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is librocubicularist, which means a person who reads in bed, as in, “The college student became a librocubicularist because she often fell asleep reading her textbooks and figured she might as well be comfortable.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!