Tassels and next steps

Not too long ago I attended my 20th high school reunion. It's weird to think I graduated twenty years
ago. There's a mix of it feeling a million years ago and like it was just yesterday. Last week the class of 2016 tossed their caps towards the sky, hugged and gathered for the very last time as one body. It's bitter sweet as a new chapter begins.

Sitting on the graduation field I scanned Seneca's Class of 2016 and wondered what awaits these 289 young minds. I've heard countless chide over the years, "high school is the best four years of your life." Man, how I hope that is an inaccurate statement for every single young person on every field across the country receiving their diploma. There is a whole lifetime that still lies ahead of them. High School can be a whole lot of good, bad and in between, but I certainly hope it's not the best. That would be a disheartening reality. Blah. 

Reflecting back to my four years in high school there is very little academic that pops into my mind as friendships, challenges and experiences greater define that time of my life. But even those memories can be grainy. I remember sitting with friends at concerts listening to Dave Matthews, paddling out to surf in 45 degrees on Christmas morning with my sisters and snow shoeing across town to get a Wawa hoagie in the blizzard of 1995. Good memories, but only one chapter in the of many chapters before and to follow. 

It's funny how much weight is placed on a high school experience that is a very narrow window in the frame of time. When I sit with young people there is often an all or nothing mentality with high school. Live large, think after the fact and jam everything in the span of four years. Many times this mentality has our kids making impulsive, irrational decisions. God willing, there are multiple chapters to be filled with joys, tears, love, loss and goodness.

After high school there's all the first time experiences that have a way of forging the person you become. The first time you apply for a job, begin to pay your own bills, take your first road trip, begin forging your own identity are all amazing 'first times' that stretch beyond the halls of high school. Life moves on and what a crazy awesome reality that is. 

As I circulated the room with about 150 of my high school alumni I found myself strangely uncomfortable. I'm not sure why. There were many I didn't recognize and many others I had not spoken to in twenty years. I enjoyed high school, but it's a part of my life that I'm ok not revisiting. Weird, I know. 

My hope for the class of 2016 both high school and college is that they will confidently step forward into their next chapter (even if it is anxiety provoking, which it is) and take the lessons from the last four years to make college, the work force, the military an experience that allows them to live in the present and not the past. 

A shout out to three amazing graduates who step into their next chapters knowing their four years in high school had a hand in shaping who they are, but all the many 'next's will forge them into the individuals they ultimately become. I cannot wait to see where their roads lead them. Rock on, ladies! 

Father Fest

When I was a little kid my parents always made a big deal out of celebrating Birthday's, Mother's Day and Father's Day. I remember waking up early with my two sisters as my Mom made a crazy full fledge breakfast and we ran around decorating like all get out from cut out hearts to hand made banners. I can close my eyes and be transported back into our kitchen and almost smell my mom's pancakes and see three scrawny little kids running around like mad to make sure Dad's day was special. My parents did the same for us when our Birthday's rolled around. It was a very cool tradition that allowed for a pause from the every day to take time and love on the ones that mattered most. It's one of many things they instilled in me that I am profoundly grateful for. 

Celebrating and lifting up those who hold special places in our hearts is something that should happen more than once a year. Sometimes life has a way of distracting us, clouding our priorities and time can slip through our fingertips where one year becomes five and five years becomes twenty. As I woke this morning fixing breakfast for my husband while chatting on the phone with my Dad as my Mom was still, thirty years later, flipping those pancakes I knew that neither of them had a Dad to call to say, "I love you." Blah. I didn't have the privilege to ever meet my Father's Dad or my Husband's Dad. I know, without words ever needing to be exchanged, that they both miss their Dads very much. Mother's Day and Father's Day is hard for so many who can't pick up the phone or kick a text. 

So as we roll into another week with work, summer classes and life going full steam ahead I encourage you to make a phone call, drop a card in the mail or give a hug to that someone that holds a special place in your heart. Meet up for a chat over coffee on the front porch. Maybe send an old picture that will put a smile on that special someone's face.  Give a hug and an "I love you" without prompting. 

But most of all, don't be a butt head. Don't take the ones you love for granted. Keep your priorities in check. Love fully, richly and unconditionally. Because one day that special someone may not be there.Life's too short to take the ones we love for granted. 

Thank you Dad for never being anything short of awesome and thank you Keith for loving me in the most beautiful and selfless of ways. Happy Father's Day!