Graduation: One-way Ticket to Nowhere Special
Chad Lennon
June 2002
Graduating is the most overated experience there will ever be. People act like it is the most important thing that will ever happen to you. These people’s only accomplishment in life must actually be graduating, from high school or in some cases, kindergarten.
There are so many amazing things that you can do in your life and people are doing them without having to go to school. Now don’t get me wrong, you should go to school; it’s important, but don’t think that going will automatically get you the ticket through life. I recently ended my tenure at TJC and although long, I finished it, but before I was even through, people expected me to have a job lined up and ready to go. What happened to taking some time off? I am 21 and I never changed my major so I think that time-wise, I am well ahead of schedule.
Alas, I am pestered to no end about having a job and constantly feel like I am perceived as a slacker with no motivation to better myself. I have a part-time job right now, and while I do plan on getting a “real” job, related to my field of study, I refuse to work at a place where I am completely miserable just for the sake of saying: “I am working in my field!” It’s just not for me; I would like to look around and see what I am jumping into before I get trapped in a crappy job. I can’t afford to quit and tell myself every day, “I’m sure it will get better.” Sadly, I don’t have that ignorant or “optimistic,” for some people, outlook.
So back to graduation; the event itself is full of countless lies such as, “You are the future of a brighter tomorrow.” I doubt the shallow degenerates I went to school with will make the future any brighter. I just love that one: this is especially prevalent during high school graduation. I mean all you did was finally finish what the government made you start in the first place. I also wasn’t lucky enough to be able to get along with the shallow, heavy-drinking, drug-using kids at my school; I guess I just wasn’t “cool” enough. Now, I did have some great friends and we had some good times, at least when out good times weren’t ruined because “Johnny Law” decided to lay the smack down.
So graduation finally rolls around the second time in my life (hopefully the last) and it was still as boring and trite as ever, but then again, some things never change, do they?
On the bright side, graduations have given me some purpose in life; and that is to take out the ultimate evil, the graduation cap. Moreover, the money just can’t be beat! Graduation is the most financially lucrative endeavor in a young person’s short life.
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