When The Merionite asked me to reflect or offer advice to you all, I thought “Inconceivable!” Giving advice about life assumes a certain level of knowing what to do myself, and for me to think that I’m in a position to do that? Well, “that’s vanity.” The truth and “you can handle the truth” is that we’re all just figuring it out as we go along. That’s why, as a teacher and lover of film, I’ve decided to offer some of Hollywood’s greatest adages. Cliché? Yes. But quotes endure for a reason.
Last year, several of my students convinced me to quote Forrest Gump’s famous line, “Life is like a box of chocolates.” I don’t remember the terms of the deal, nor do I understand why they wanted me to say it. Yet, this simplistic simile has a lot of merit: you never know what plot twists life has in store for you, and “nothing is going to hit you as hard as life.” The adversity that your class faced–three superintendents, COVID-19, the loss of a principal was unprecedented. “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most beautiful of all.”
And here you are, blooming, at the fork in the river where you’re not sure what lies around the bend. You’re going to ebb and flow between “seizing the day and making your lives extraordinary” and realizing that “life moves pretty fast and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” “The right path isn’t always the easiest one,” and “it is our choices that show what we truly are.”
“All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.” No easy task. And not something I can give you direction on. I don’t need to, either. I’ve seen what you’ve been through, and I’ve seen what you’ve accomplished. You already have the tools not only to survive in the great big world, but to thrive in it. To make it your own. To “throw a lasso around the moon and pull it down” if you want to. You have the power to do anything you dream, frankly. Just remember that “with great power comes great responsibility.”
As you sit at that fork in the river knowing adventure is out there, choose a path, whatever path. And if you find that you don’t like it, choose another one. And another one after that. There’s no limit to the paths you can take; as Dory says, “just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” The point is, “you control your destiny.” You don’t need movies or me or anyone else to tell you what to do. You know what to do; “you just have to trust who you are.”
So, Class of 2023: graduate. Go forth and serve… “to infinity and beyond.” You’ve heard enough out of me, and I’m almost at my word limit. To answer the question simply, there’s no better advice I can think of than to “get busy living.”
