Well, I'm coming to the end of the line, or so it seems. Yesterday was my last day of high school and on June 3 at 3:00 PM I'll be graduating. As I reflect on it, I find it to be a very bittersweet occasion for me. I'll never have the same structured restraint, but I'm leaving behind a world of security and so many memories. I may possibly never again see some of my good friends or the much enjoyed teachers I've had this year. I was somewhat saddened as I looked out at 5th graders playing at recess across the field at the elementary school that borders my parents' house. They seemed to be having so much innocent fun and not realizing how fast it all seems to go by. I can look back on 13 years of schooling and say that through all the hard work and testing, it was incredibly fun. Though I've had a couple of undesirable teachers, most of them had a passion for what they were doing and were filled with inspiring wisdom. In a few months I'll be going off to college, turning my world upside down. I'll be leaving my parents' house and going to an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. It's both exciting and depressing, and I'm hoping that I can focus on the former.

Perhaps I'm overly sentimental, but that's how I feel. I'm sure that all of you have been in the same situation and most of you can relate to me. It's going to be the biggest step I've ever taken in my yet short life. Fortunately, I'll still have this great coterie of friends here to bridge the gap.

Hopefully some of you can dig up some appropriately inspirational poems and quotes for this occasion.

Artist: Vitamin C
Album: Vitamin C
Title: Graduation


And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day
Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
And I keep thinking of that night in June
I didn't know much of love
But it came too soon
And there was me and you
And then we got real cool
Stay at home talking on the telephone with me
We'd get so excited, we'd get so scared
Laughing at our selves thinking life's not fair
And this is how it feels

1 - As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together
And as our lives change
Come whatever
We will still be
Friends Forever

So if we get the big jobs
And we make the big money
When we look back now
Will our jokes still be funny?
Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Still be trying to break every single rule
Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?
Can we ever find a job that won't interfere with a tan?
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
And this is how it feels

Repeat 1

La, la, la, la…
Yeah, yeah, yeah
La, la, la, la…
We will still be friends forever

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now?
Can we survive it out there?
Can we make it somehow?
I guess I thought that this would never end
And suddenly it's like we're women and men
Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

Repeat 1 (3x)

JazzO, in Zild we don't have graduation from high school in the same way you do - caps, gowns, diplomas, etc. We leave school either having passed our external exams or not. Perhaps it is just that the focus is different.

However, I think you are very fortunate to be able to objectively look at your high schooling as having been (presumably on the whole) an enjoyable experience. I wish I could say the same! I left high school in my final year, in the end, because it was not providing me with any positive experiences that overrode the basic problem that having to turn up was interfering with my social life something awful. Fortunately I had passed all the exams that mattered (i.e. I was entitled to go to university, and I think the exam I passed for that was Surfing 101).

However, the basic conundrum that you posed - what will the future after school is left behind be like - is certainly one that we have all faced at some level or another. And I guess that it will be "worse" for you because you're leaving something you enjoyed behind. I looked forward to the future as a reprieve from the past.

Congratulations, and I hope that college is just as much fun and leaves you feeling the way you feel now when you have graduated from that.

Dear JazzO: Congratulations. This is just the first of a series of upheavals you can anticipate. You will lose a lot of friends, but keep making new ones. You will keep having to make choices, and inevitably you must expect some choices will prove unfortunate.But you have a lot going for you, and I expect you to achieve success you can be proud of. I hope happiness will come with it.One thing I now bitterly regret is that I somehow never managed to thank any of the very fine teachers to whom I owed so much. Love, Bill Hunt

Congratulations, JazzO! You can look back on your accomplishments with pride, and look forward to entering the best time of your life.



IF

If you can keep your head
when all about you men are losing theirs
and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
but make allowances for their doubting, too.
If you can wait but not be tired of waiting,
or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise,

If you can dream but not make dreams your master,
if you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
and treat those two imposters just the same,
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
and stoop and build them up with worn-out tools,
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,
and lose and start again at your beginnings
and never breathe a word about your loss,

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone,
and to hold on when there is nothing in you
but the will that says to them "hold on,"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
or walk with kings nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
if all men count with you but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with 60 seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
and which is more, you'll be a man, my son.


-- Rudyard Kipling

Dear JazzO,
Congratulations on your graduation.
I will assay a few words about the beginning of your college days based on my experience and those of friends.
It will be a whirlwind and you will probably become overwhelmed by the conviction that there are all kinds of opportunities that are "out there" and which you are missing!
Fear not! The feeling will pass and you'll gradually get the hang of it all.
The personal freedom of college may leave you a bit lightheaded. Try to set up and follow a schedule for study. Your efforts will pay off big time -- with better marks at the end of first term and a solid base for your GPA.
This will gratify your parents and amaze your professors!
Good luck and all best wishes for your future,
wow.

Congratulations, JazzO! I predict your college years will be yet another positive experience, since you get out of it what you put into it. And it sounds as if you learned that secret in high school! I am mightily impressed (but, since I've read your posts, not at all surprised) that you articulate so well the mixed emotions of this special time in your life. Enjoy every minute and go with gusto into your future! nancyk

PS Can I adopt you??

nancyk, you gotta get in line .

This JazzO is special even if he *is Republican. JazzO, you're a bright spot here. For all our differences, I'm glad I "met" you [going-off-to-be-maudlin-elsewhere-and-winking-at-Max-just-for-the-hell-of-it e]

-winking-at-Max-just-for-the-hell-of-it e

Excuse me, AnnaS, but if anybody's going to start winking at my MaxQ, they'd best get in line, if it's all the same with you.

if anybody's going to start winking at my MaxQ, they'd best get in line

AFTER me, each and every one of you!Just 'cause I put a smiley face, don't think I'm not serious!

Dear Jazz
These are wishes from the other end of the world to you - isn't the internet magical?
A few months ago I read Seamus Heaney's address to the Chapel Hill graduates. I wanted to post it here and was glad to find it still on the net:
http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/heaney/unc-commencement.html

The best lines of this address in my opinion are :
Getting started, keeping going, getting started again -- in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm not only of achievement but of survival, the ground of convinced action, the basis of self-esteem and the guarantee of credibility in your lives, credibility to yourselves as well as to others.

Nobody told me this when I graduated but I learnt as I am sure everyone does sooner or later through the hard way. And in keeping with the theme of getting started again is this extremely profound rhyme:

There was a man named Michael Finnigan.
He grew whiskers on his chinnigan.
The wind came up and blew them in again.
Poor old Michael Finnigan.
Begin Again.

All the profundity is in the last two words
Tongue in Cheek? No dead serious!

All the best of everything to you - Jazz.

Hopefully some of you can dig up some appropriately inspirational poems and quotes for this occasion.

All I can do is join in conrgatulating you JazzO, and express my conviction that your intelligence and drive wuill see you go far, in whichever direction you wish. Sorry, but inspiration seldom graces me with her presence. Chutzpah on the other hand is my constant companion, and leads me to ask this: On this momentous occasion, for which you are rightly being congratulated, is there any chance that we could, literally, hear you living up to your chosen screen handle? I'm sure that there would be room in the idrive for a recording of you playing. Your enthusiasm and vigour have already contributed much to the lively nature of this Board, and if you are able to let us hear you play, that would be a wonderful reversal of the tradition of receiving gifts on such occasions as this. Irregardless, "Well Done!", and may all your future pathways be pleasantness and peace.

As a glance at my profile will show, I am fond of Tolkien's work, and one of his poems seems apt here, as you close one door and open another:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

So while none, save perhaps Janus, can say where the door you are about open will take you, I am sure that the journey will prove to be its own reward. Congratulations, Jazzoctopus, and all the very best.

Excuse me, AnnaS, but if anybody's going to start winking at my MaxQ, they'd best get in line, if it's all
the same with you.

Huh?

I am sorry, AnnaStrophic, an attempt at humour that fell flat.

Congratulations, Jazz. I think the others have said most of the stuff I was going to, but let me add some advice about college. It is one of the few (if not the only) time in your life when you will be exposed to so much learning in so many different fields. Don't let your chosen major consume all of your time and energy. Some of my favorite classes (and one I remember information from the most) are the ones I took Freshman year when I had no idea what I was going to focus on, and I had decided to not even *think about a major until sophmore year. At most colleges six semesters is plenty of time to fit in your major requirements, so take some Philosophy, some higher math (especially if you hate math, like me), some literature, and a really foreign language (Arabic? Chinese?) even if you only take it for a semester or two.

Like it or not, your life is changing even as I speak. Don't fight it too much, but don't let the current overwhelm you either. Oh, and as a new parent, I feel I must add that college is mind-altering enough *without the chemicals. I knew some very brilliant people who saw their lives collapse around them because of drugs at college. [/downer]

CONGRATULATIONS! May joy and happiness and enlightenment find you wherever you end up. And don't forget your friends here -- we're easy to stay in touch with!

Congratulations JazzO-- this is just one of the formal commencements of your life-- As you get older-- you'll come to treasure it-- if for no other reason than your life will change, and commence again, with unscheduled irregularity-- and you'll wish for the time when you knew change was coming and could prepare for it!

Your wistfulnes-- and reflections will be with you all your life-- I wish for the you the life you don't expect-- Not a bad life-- but one with filled with surprizes-- and oportunities-- with unfathomed changes-- You are smart enough, and well educated enough already to enjoy such a life--

I will second Flatland-- keep an open mind-- there is so much out there-- so many topics to explore-- hold off on your major (But not quite as long as i did-- i graduated college age 40!)-- you might find your self in love with something you've never realized--
An article in the times some years ago, about college experience, related the story of a man who went to college with an athletic scholarship-- who was sure he was going to persue sports as a career- even if only as a coach or gym teacher. an english reading assignment found him reading what he thought was a sport account-- On first looking into Chapman's Homer (that he didn't know any great ball players named Chapman didn't faze him). He ended up with a Major in English lit, and a career as a writer. (On first... can be found in the verse thread.)

Best wishes to you-- except for this board-- I can't image myself enjoying time spent with a jazz loving republican --
your jazz hating NY liberal friend!

When I started college I met with my advisor, and then I didn't get the chance again until I graduated, our schedules clashed so much, out of country, out of state... and so I took his advise and ran with it. He said don't worry about a major, just take what's interesting. So I did. And I kept this in mind when signing up for all my classes since I didn't have further advise of an advisor to lean on. When I came to my third year I had two class left for an English major and a film minor. I took those classes and graduated early.
However this advise should be taken with a grain of salt, I know my advisor was talking about the first year of college, not my whole college career, I just happened to be interested in English, I also took Greek History, Pottery, Human Biology... My brother, I think, followed this advise also and wandered from department to department for thirteen years before graduating.
Although bittersweet for some, this is a great time in your life. I hope you enjoy it all, Jazz. Like Captain Kiwi, I didn't really graduate from High School, I just moved on. I think the reason this thread leans toward college advise is that life is about moving on. I used to go back to my town and there were people who hadn't moved on. They are exactly how they were in High School. That doesn't necessarily mean college, but grow. I think anyone who visits here, will always grow a little. There are some great memories out there waiting for you to add to the great ones you have of high school. If you don't add to them, you'll only have high school.

Jazz, my sincere congratulations. By now I hope you realize the affection, indeed, love, that so many of us have for you. Most of us on this board are at least mature, some of us getting a bit over-mature, and it's a real delight to have a young man to join us. One of the great things about this forum is that we respect the right of all to their opinions, whether linguistic, cultural or political, however much they may differ from our own. I hope you will keep this spirit of toleration for the views of others as a guiding principle for your future life and conduct. Without it, you become another narrow-minded ideologue, forever incapable of learning anything but what you don't already agree with.

On the practical level, I echo the advice given by more than one of our community -- don't lock yourself in prematurely in your choice of subjects, classes or major. Try different fields, languages, areas -- never be afraid of being labelled a dilettante; you can't have too diverse an experience. But if you discover a passion for some subject or area, go for it; you won't be able to stop yourself anyway.

Lastly, you asked for some poetic inspiration or advice. As man to man, I think you will appreciate, and be able to apply, Tennyson's retelling of the oath the Round Table Knights swore:

I made them lay their hands in mine and swear
To reverence the King, as if he were
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,
To honour his own word as if his God's,
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity
...
Not only to keep down the base in man,
But teach high thought, and amiable words
And courtliness, and the desire of fame,
And love of truth, and all that makes a man.

from Idylls of the King

Jazzo, I would like to add my congratulations and best wishes to those you've all ready received. I sincerely hope that your transmogrification to college student from "high school kid" will not mean that you have no time or opportunity to continue delighting us with your humour and passion.
My own experience is so wildly different from yours that I will not even consider offering it as a comparator, and most of the advice that I would give you has already been given, far better than I would have managed. There is but one thing that I would reinforce and that is the advice about early specialisation and the need to avoid it. I recommend these wise words for your consideration:
A specialist is a person who learns more and more about less and less, until in the end they know absolutely everything about nothing.

As to your personal and social life, you are the best expert to advise on that - I would just say in passing that I believe the best policy about all things in life is moderation.
Moderation in all things - including moderation!

A verse from a song my mother used to sing whilst working - (no idea of its provenance):

"Go forth, and though it be o'er stony ways,
Old Time will bring what never grief may borrow;
And sweet is Sweet - but that was yesterday
And sweet is Sweet that purchaseth tomorrow."

Good luck in college, friend Jazzo: may you walk in peace.

I know this thread is about real graduations, but, since he did put Part V:

Bingley is an old hand. How do you feel, now that you are no longer an addict, sir?

Are my hands trembling with cold turkey or just because they're old?

By the way, Jazzo, advice seems presumptuous since I have no experience of an American college, so I'll just say I hope the experience is everything you wish for it, and more.

Bingley

Are my hands trembling with cold turkey or just because they're old?

"Old" hands on the "old hand"--ohmigawd! Ow, ow, ow!
===========================================================

Jazzo., you are well and truly out of most that was familiar to you, now, aren't you, Sweetie? Since I am a
security-craving person, I don't envy you, facing the unknown. But a great many people thrive on it, and feel that they're going "stale" without some elements of uncertainty. Whichever tendency you lean toward, you'll be fine at college. It won't take long for you to feel
"settled in"--orientation will help a lot, with that. I
will tell you that the biggest difference to me was the
"homework": very seldom was it due the next day. Rather, assignments were due days, or even weeks, after they were handed out. And there is no one to make sure you do them,
and to make sure you begin them early enough so that you don't have to stay up all night working on it for the first time, the day it is due. A lot of freshmen (and older students as well) spend so much time socializing that their
grades suffer--and there is no one, usually, to give them any real warning, until they get the failing grade. I have a feeling you will manage both aspects of college life quite well. Good luck to you.

Congratulation, Jazzo. I concur with the wisdom other members offer. Enjoy the challenges of the new experiences ahead, and keep your feet anchored to the very (un)common-sense reality you have displayed to us on this board. Mix business and pleasure in full measure – otherwise, as Berowne says in Love’s Labour’s Lost:
”O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,
Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep!”

The only specific advice I offer is: question everything. That includes your own natal and conditioned assumptions, as well as the logic and motives of all who will presume to share their wisdom. In cultivating dispassionate intellectual honesty, avoid the trap of empty cynicism, lest the King’s jibe about Berowne come true:
“How well he’s read, to reason against reading!”

Good luck.


Bingley, it’s so good to see someone climb out of such an addictive frying pan…

Maverick says : Bingley, it’s so good to see someone climb out of such an addictive frying pan…

...and into the fire to be purified for yet higher endeavours!

Jazzoctopus
Hopefully some of you can dig up some appropriately inspirational poems and quotes for this occasion.

There are so many quotes and poetry that we can dig up for you to celebrate this milestone in your life, and I have a favorite but there is one thing I have to remind you not to forget--Do not forget your Aunt Jackie's advice on homework., because, dear Jazzo, to be able to enjoy to the fullest all the frills and the fun that come with college, first you have to do homework.

Congratulations! Don't forget the homework!

chronist

Though I've had a couple of undesirable teachers, most of them had a passion for what they were doing and were filled with inspiring wisdom.

One of the best things about college, at least for me, has been the wonderful professors I've been privileged to study under. They have imparted knowledge and wisdom, inspired, and challenged me throughout my three years (so far) of college. I sometimes say that I've never met a professor that I didn't like-- not strictly true of course, but close to it.
I hope that you will have a great college experience, Jazzo. I can honestly say that I am enjoying this time in my life-- my college years-- more than any other, at least so far. May you be able to say the same in the coming years!
Congratulations on your graduation tomorrow, and God bless you.

Since I'm the only one bold enough to say this... even without knowing your background... in the words of Homer Simpson to the nerds of the world ... par---tay.

(I was gonna' say "it'l be your last chance before 'real' life'... but I've already proved that wrong...)

(after you do your homework... of course)

Here's an exam hint I'd nearly forgotten ... there was one Professor I had who "suggested" his students check out a certain section of the HUGE library ... then one question on the exam was (to paraphrase) "Provide directions to the ___ section of the library starting from the main desk." The question was a quarter of the exam.
Sooooo if your Prof "suggest" a visit somewhere .... GO!
Best of Irish luck to you.
P.S., I aced the question, but then I was used to "suggestions" from the Good Sisters!

Well, I now have in my possession a diploma. Yesterday I graduated and high school is now behind me.

I purposefully delayed responding to your posts because to answer each individually would have been madness. I thank you all for your kind words and wisdom you have imparted. I hope that I can make use of it. It's nice to know that I have a place like this with so many great friends.

My college plans are, for the most part, finalized now. As my profile says I'll be going to the University of Cincinnati to study Architecture. I know, I know, you said don't get too caught up in my major, but this program is designed as an emersion course. They start you off freshman year with mostly architecture classes. Part of the benefit of this is that if I decided I don't like it I can get out early before wasting too much time, but I plan on enjoying it. And seeing as UCs Architecture program is ranked 6th in the nation, they must know what they're doing.

I am, of course, also intending to take other classes. I'll be in the honors program so I'll have access to smaller, off-beat classes like Eastern Thought and American Literature and Moral Responsibility in the Age of Cognitive and Brain Sciences. I haven't totally decided on a minor yet, but it will probably be urban planning, history or philosophy.

I'll of course continue coming here for my daily fun and English lessons, even if my roommate thinks I'm wierd.

Jazzoctopus, congratulations on your graduation and best of everything for the future. I won't attempt to give you any advice, since others have done that already, and probably better than I could, what with my coming from a Spanish university and all. All I have to say is, enjoy! I am sure you will.

Marianna