Congratulations!
To quote a meme that’s been making the rounds on the Internet, you’ve gotten through the easiest part of life!
We kid. Well, maybe there’s a little truth to that. But that’s no grounds for despair. It’s kind of just how life is, really. The past four years have been spent preparing you for the next four – which will be a lot harder but also a lot more rewarding, trust us – to be followed by the next block of life, and so on and so forth. There’s apparently supposed to be a point where you get to lie around and sip lemonade, but we’re pretty sure that’s mostly just for investment firm commercials.
The big four years of high school are over. So what about the next four? The majority of you will be heading off to college in the fall, and others will be launching into careers. We’d remind you to work hard and eat your vegetables, but you’re probably getting a lot of that kind of advice from all corners. Instead, may we recommend the following: be open to new experiences, pursue what excites you and above all, embrace change.
The gravitas of the word “change” might have been deflated somewhat thanks to a certain politician, but it’s the most important word for this stage of your life. A lot can change in four years. The Class of 2013 was heading into its freshman year of high school in 2009, for example. Barack Obama had just been inaugurated for his first term in office. The economy was in an absolute tailspin that makes today’s troubles look laughable. Detroit automakers were filing for bankruptcy. The new iPhone 3GS had just been released. And the nation was embroiled in a fierce debate over the future of health care (well, some things never change).
We’d warrant over the course of these past four years, the members of the Class of 2013 have changed, as well. They’ve powered through adolescence and are ready to step into adulthood, ready to find out who they really are.
We say that because at this point, many graduates might feel that they have only a vague direction to pursue, without a real comprehension of where it might lead. For some teens – whose social, extracurricular and academic activities have been meticulously scripted for years – this might be a daunting thought. But the trick to life is to realize and embrace the excitement of that unknown, not be paralyzed by it. Be ready for change. To lock yourself into expectations now is not only unrealistic, it’s unfair.
The great successes of any era didn’t get to where they wanted to go by doggedly sticking to an itinerary. They learned and adapted, were willing to admit faults without shame and turn them into victories. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg’s early software creations were hardly major successes. But through hard work and adaptation, he’s worth an estimated $13.3 billion at the ripe old age of 29.
Zuckerberg’s story is, of course, off the standard charts. But he and others of the Silicon Valley “hacker” set share a common dogma that we could all learn from – that experimentation, up to and including the point of failure, is a worthy endeavor. That doing is far better than planning. By this mode of thinking, starting down a road and being unable to finish is not a disaster, it’s an opportunity to grow.
It’s an idea that’s easy to absorb and far more difficult to live by. But don’t worry. You have the next four years to work on it.