This piece is dedicated to my dear cousin Em who graduated today. I'm excited to see where her life will take her next and I look forward to many a colorful story as her dreams force their way into the 'real world'.
I guess I don't really understand the “graduation ceremony” experience as it exists in the western university context. Of course its a reflection of the general consensus we've established that the world of education is not just a preferred right of passage but a necessary pre-requisite for an appropriate entrance into the 'real world' of adulthood. But the ceremony is something more isn't it? Most of the folks I spoke to about this topic confessed that they really didn't care about it but they were walking under significant pressure from their parents. That seems fitting; a final cave in for the sake of ones elders, a capitulation of sorts. Not so very different from the forced piano recitals, begrudging Halloween costumes and ironically, the years spent on schoolwork so divorced from our everyday interests and experiences. I feel like this is a pretty jaded way of looking at the whole thing and it lends itself to a pretty depressive state of being, which, at the moment feels a little too close to home. And while this is definitely one way to look at it, I don't think its fair. So for the sake of fairness, and discovery, lets consider another angle.
At its heart, graduation is both the ending and the beginning. The last stretch of a jagged road as it merges into something new, something unknown. The image of an alarm clock lingers on the edges of my mind. The day they hand out the pricey pieces of paper represents the biggest, most intense wake up call in the young lives of many a student. The beginning of the 'real' and end of the 'dream'. While our bodies remain in a sleepy stupor, our minds are encouraged to dream. For decades we leap through one hoop or another in the name of preparation. We hone our skills, we try our hands, we learn a trade, we weigh our future options. Its a constant state of imagination and re-imagination of possible futures filled with adventurous travel, audacious research and financial windfalls, all of which we are said to expect at some point on the horizon. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the horizon creeps out from the shadows and presents itself in the form a cap and gown. RRRrrrrrrrinnnnng!!!!!
Ripped from this world of constant social interaction and shared experience, it's easy to get lost in the stunned silence that follows the end of decades of formal education. The sad part is that its not some overbearing force set to control us that so many struggle with, its the freedom. Where to go when there are no guidelines laid out for us to follow as we have been for so long. I suppose that's what the alarm clock rings in; a forceful recognition of the expectation to realize ones potential, NOW. Surely this is the definition of existential anguish on an epic scale. Having your life handed to you is enough to make you want to hand it right back, but is that the only thing to be done? I don't think so. Hopefully that state of dreaming for the future can be recaptured and smuggled into our 'real' present lives in ways that sustain faith in ourselves and those around us. This kind of endeavour can be tricky, its not easy dream in real time is it? But surely when we consider those who have accomplished this task we come up with a list of visionaries, heroines and individuals who made the world a better place, all with while with a smile on their faces.
But the people we are presented as role models aren't always those in touch with their dreams. All too often we allow ourselves to be wowed by the lives and choices of others. Whenever we look at those lives, be it on their resume or listening to them ramble on at graduation parties, its critical to recognize that the long view affords a particularly generous vantage point for evaluation and they too lost heart, got turned around and made mistakes. This forgiving perspective is lacking for so many of us in our day to day decision making or, more precisely our regular self evaluations. Instead we let this invisible pressure call into question the minutiae of our 'real' lives and call it mediocrity. How did Albert Einstien feel when he woke up each morning to ride his bicycle to the patent office? Feelings aside, we consider the activity in his head at those very moments to have been some of the most inspired and important thoughts in the modern age. His dreams, were worth more than anyone could have ever imagined.
So what do your dreams look like, what form do they take and what gifts do they hold in store for you and those around you? Give them the respect they beg for by recognizing that its ok for them to exist. No degree or diploma should swat the flies that whisper great things in your ears, no nay-saying banker should dry up the liquidity of your creativity. No real estate speculator has the power to sell off your dreamscape.
Dream well and dream often; dream for a living.
