Skip to main content

High School Graduation

High School Graduation
for MB

Reason to Celebrate: 
The beginning of adulthood—yeah!  Independence has been earned?  Party.  Family and friends are proud.  Life as an adult, kinda, begins. 

The Challenge(s): 

Off to college or university—kinda scared; I don’t really know if I’ll be able to meet expectations?  or
Intend to marry—safety with a partner; or begin family—happy, scary, & unequipped; 

The Fears  :-(    
Thoughts:  I’m probably the only one who doesn’t know what I want to do with my life.  I don’t know what I want to go to school for?  I can’t live up to expectations (adulthood)?  What are my expectations?  What is my responsibility to myself, to my family, friends, community?  I’m overwhelmed!  How will I make money?  How will I live?  How come I don’t know the answer to what I want to be for the rest of my life?  What am I good at—in the real world…nothing.  I can’t even think of a safe good paying job to take. 
What is LIFE all ABOUT?  & where do I fit?





Bask in the happiness of high school graduation. 

At any age, life’s major changes can be daunting.  There are no perfect individuals.  There are certain questions that one simply does not have immediate answers;—“what am I gonna be when I grow up”? 

It’s fantastic to have a clear objective and work toward it.  Here is a fulfilling goal all individuals can accomplish—take a seat then breath deeply for five or six times exhale slowly relax and exist in the now, the right now, this minute, ONLY.  Why diminish oneself over the frustration of failing to look into the crystal ball of expectations to discover one’s future.

As one moves away from high school recognize that the lesson was not in a graduation ceremony but in the classes, friends, trips, parents, parties, sports, siblings, neighbors, embarrassments, fights, crushes, failures, successes, grades, buildings, projects, loves, hates, that led to graduation.  It’s in the experience, it’s in the commitment or non-commitment, but most of all it’s in what you learn from the experience. 

Fear is a stagnant mire of misery where too many folk find comfortable accommodations.  To face fears can empower one to make better decisions, be better people.  If you have convinced yourself that you don’t have a dream and will never have one, move toward any positive achievement, with optimism and commitment, the momentum one builds will offer self-knowledge and growth.  Go to school, take-up a trade, design clothes, furniture, boxes, widgets, apps, follow-through with an invention, web design, writing, advertising or experiment started in HS.  To loosely repeat a cliché: daily, intentionally and actively reach for unknown stars in the heavens the least one can expect is to end-up among the clouds. 

The secret: 
It’s all about the journey—fulfillment and triumph is in the process the experience of achieving an accomplishment—the diploma, degree, award, accolade is a decoration. 


Walk dreamlessly, if you must,
be present in this moment.
I see beyond
where you are now. 
I love you.


R. Jones

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lavinia Bell, A Story to Pass On (Part 1)

Born in Washington DC   / Enslaved in Texas   /   Interviewed in Canada 1861 I was going over newspaper and magazine interviews, 1827-1863 in collection edited by John W. Blassingame.   Lavinia Bell’s story is particularly touching in her determination to be free at all costs yet disturbing in the raw violence to which she was subjected.   Born free in Washington she was stolen as an infant and enslaved in Galveston, Texas.   As the property of William Whirl, his wife, Polly, taught Lavinia to be a performer, “taught to dance, sing, cackle like a hen, or crow like a rooster…”   About the age of 13 or 14, she was sent to the cotton field an exposed to a different level of bondage. In the Galveston, Texas cotton field the Whirl's laboring slaves were exposed to the relentless sun naked, their hair shaved close to their heads, and receiving fifty lashes daily, whether they worked or not.   Bell reported that “they were also compelled to go down on their knees, and ha
1 comment
Read more

Contact Bonnie at SAN for writing assistance: sanstudiobt@gmail.com

Post a Comment
Read more

Lavinia Bell, A Story to Pass On (Part 2)

Born in Washington DC   / Enslaved in Texas   /   Interviewed in Canada 1861 Recap, Lavinia Bell was born free, stolen as an infant from her parents in Washington and enslaved in Texas by the Whirl family.   Trained to be a performer and probably viewed Polly Whirl (wife of the sadistic William, owner of the property in Galveston, Texas) as a maternal figure.   After she becomes a teen Bell is forced into new labor, naked, like the other slaves, in the fields suffering unbelievable constant torture.   Somehow she managed to bite off a part of Whirl’s nose.   In response several of her teeth were hammered out.   Her determination to escape continued and she managed to board a ship, hiding among some barrels.   When she was discovered she spoke to the captain in gibberish.   A passenger gave her a blanket because she was naked.   She managed to get ashore in Louisiana and was recognized and pursued.   To escape she jumped into a river of alligators, avoided attack and eventuall
Post a Comment
Read more