I can’t help feeling a bit nostalgic, because this is an anniversary year for me, and I just learned that high school commencement for the class of 2018 is coming this week, which brings back a lot of memories. Sure there was the cardboard pizza in the cafeteria, the lockers that never held enough, the ancient textbooks from Aristotle’s reject pile, but how much about high school graduation has really changed?
It’s still a passage based on a collection of policies and rules which have nothing to do with real life: I remember the receipt of my diploma depended upon my ability to find and turn in my concert band bow tie (which I never missed). There were points and GPA calculations and fittings for gowns which still didn’t fit, and I don’t think even the last month of the semester amounted to anything. It’s the law and we all followed along with resigned obedience.
The valedictorian may not have the greatest command of English (having concentrated on science major courses), and the person at the bottom of the class ranking may well become the greatest inventor since the guy who created the Salad Shooter®, or even written the speech for the valedictorian. With the exception of whomever teaches summer school (if that is still a thing), the building will be emptied for about two months and change, and it starts all over again in September.
After graduation, I sat on the front steps of our home with my parents and inhaled the breath of freedom from school basics, looking forward to night classes in the fall at Rutgers. The next day I started my job. I have never seen 99 percent of my classmates since then. Some of them disappeared and we never did find them for any reunions over the years. We are such a mobile society that we don’t have our fellow students to be nostalgic with anymore.
Well, for what it’s worth, below is my real senior class picture, taken on graduation day after having my braces removed. I like it, because I like to look back and think that high school offered the promise of a future to smile about.
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