Lessons from a High School Graduate

Don't Call Me Tigger by C.M. Cooper

In just nine hours, I am going to receive my high school diploma and turn my tassel. I will have received some credentials, some merit in exchange for the thirteen years of my life spent learning. I will also have accomplished the major goal of childhood, and begin to embark on the first meager adult goals of my life. 

Graduating from high school is the hopeful first in a long list of major life milestones and accomplishments. As much as it is a beginning, however, it is also an ending. My years of elementary, middle, and high school have all led up to my graduation, and in those thirteen years, I have learned more than just the Pythagorean Theorem. These are all lessons and values I have written about before, but they hold their value nonetheless. 

1. Kindness

The biggest, most important, special thing I have learned in my life is kindness. There is such a tendency in a self-gratifying, impatient world to be selfish, when it is far more fulfilling to be selfless. Even with the dozens of clichés about being kind, it still rings true that to be kind, to put others before yourself, costs nothing but convenience. I assure you, your convenience is worth sacrificing. Delaying your drive home from the grocery store in order to feed the homeless is worth it. Humbling yourself enough to apologize is worth it. Kindness, at all times, is worth it. Kindness, even at the cost of your life, is worth it, because dying a kind person is far superior to dying a selfish, hateful miser.

2. Gratitude 

As much as we try to be good, kind people, we are not. We are selfish, prideful, and conceited. We gossip, and we lie, and as such sinners we are, at best, deserving of nothing, and at worst, deserving of hell. Thus, every good thing that we receive in life should not be treated as a given, but should be seen as a blessing. Gratitude should be our attitude in all things. Every act of kindness that is shown us, every paycheck that helps us cover our bills, every opportunity we have to better the world, these are all gifts, and should be treated as such. We ought to give thanks for everything, to the people around us and to God above. Every part of our lives is a gift, and it deserves our thankfulness. 

3. Patience

Each of us has goals in life. I want to publish my novel. I want to meet Jimmy Fallon. I want to graduate from college and become a teacher, go on an archaeological dig, and maybe go back to school for my PhD. I want to skydive and climb Mount Everest. Will I accomplish all of these things? Probably not. Will I try my best? Absolutely. Will I beat myself up and cry because I didn't complete every goal, or because I didn't fulfill them as quickly or as completely as I wanted to? No. 

Patience is a virtue. We practice patience with others frequently, which is a great thing, but we must also learn to have patience with ourselves. We must learn to understand that we cannot, in this one life, accomplish everything, and that is okay. We cannot do everything at once, and we cannot be the best at everything, and that is okay. We can, however, give our best shot at everything. We can try things even when we are afraid. We can learn new things, and we can occasionally fail, and that is okay. Patience, particularly with ourselves, is a practice. 

I am not through with learning things. I am not yet eighteen years old. Of the things I have learned, however, I am proud, and of the things I have not yet learned, I am anticipating.