Congratulation,

You graduated.

Now to begin the rest of your life.

Now I need you to sign away the next 4 years,

To more schooling,

And growing debt.

Most likely you’ll never use the information you just payed thousands for;

But if you don’t go you’ll never get a job.

Not in your field of course,

Just a regular job.

I need you to pick who you want to be for the rest of your life,

Today.

 

Stay focused now.

 

Look around you,

All those people you grew up with?

The ones you swore you’d always stay in contact with?

You’ll never see them again.

Maybe once, or twice if you go to your reunion,

But life moves on after high school.

 

Stay focused now.

 

Your family will make you take a hundred photos,

That no one will look at ever again.

But you must smile.

Pretend like high school was the best time of your life,

You don’t understand it,

Not today,

But it was.

It was a time of freedom,

Of growing, of learning.

But that’s over now.

 

Stay focused now.

 

You have some big decisions to make,

Who are you going to be?

Where are you going to spend the rest of your life?

What do you want to do with your life?

When do you plan to have all this figured out?

How are you going to survive?

You were supposed to answer all of these questions,

Before you walked across the stage.