Graduation is Over

"When you get to be our age, you all of a sudden realize that you are being ruled by people you went to high school with ... You all of a sudden catch on that life is nothing but high school." -Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Kurt wrote the above when he was 47 years-old during the time of the Vietnam War and after many years that drifted him through World War II and numerous jobs. It is a topic that could get wide spread discussion at a party. Both in regarding the quote and Kurt Vonnegut's life. But it also makes you stop and think about what one has done with their life since high school.

In a Time article by Annie Murphy Paul titled, Life After High School the discussion does take place. Are we that same person we were in high school? Did the time we spend in high school dictate the person we have become? Maybe to some degree it does but it doesn't have to be that way.

The person you are in high school is not the person you have to be later in life. All of our life experiences, high school, college, work, travel, friends, and just about everything has an influence on whom we become. But the determining factor in whom you become is you.

Think of those movies which depict what a person in high school turns out to be at the ten year, twenty-five and so forth reunions. Most times they are over-dramatizations or generalizations of people. But we get a picture of people that really didn't change much from high school.

The sports jocks get depicted as faded stars still talking about the winning touchdown. The geeks are shown as brainiacs with a lonely career in research. The partiers are revealed to still be whacked out people with no job living under the boardwalk. The stereo-types go on and on.

And yes, there are those that do not change. There are people that tend to keep holding onto their high school persona, never growing beyond that point in life. But the stories I like to hear are those of people that, what I call, 'drink from the water of life.' The people that have taken their high school life and used it as a launching pad towards a greater life. People with changed livesthat take what life has to offer and makes it work for them.

When we leave high school and home, we have the whole world before us. We can choose the type of life we desire. We have limitless potential. There will be those that choose a simplified life, full of the wonders and joy that exist there. Others will choose the uncharted road that is also full of wonders and joy. The point being that there is no right or wrong, just do the things that fill your life.

If ten years from high school have passed and you are unhappy, then the water of life is there to drink from. You can change what is happening and move beyond it. The same is true for any point in life. This isn't to say that you run from responsibility or run just because things get hard. You need to work through and persevere, but you can adapt and change along the way as well.

There is so much you can do with your life. You can take advantage of the power to change at any point, situation or age. All it takes is being bold enough to move. Your graduation is over and there are no more tests to take, just life.