What They Really Need To Tell You At Graduation [Rant]
At sometime in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours you might be involved in a graduation ceremony. If you are, congratulations. You or someone you love has completed a major step in their lives and they should be congratulated and commended for that.
I too was once supposed to take that long walk across a stage set up in a gym to get my diploma. I didn't because I had to work and being on the radio was so much more important to me than wearing a gown, a square hat, and shaking the hand of a superintendent who was probably drunk.
If you haven't figured it out, I am very cynical. That means I am kind of an ass. A glass half empty and spilled kind of guy but I will take off my dark cloud for a second to speak, or write what I wish I would have heard had I been there to hear what was said at my graduation.
Fellow graduates, congratulations you are now standing on the edge of the real world. In just a few moments we'll all say a prayer and throw our hats in the air and you're going to feel a cold chill run down your spine. That chill is called reality. It's not like school. School was a certainty. It started at a specific time. You knew who was in charge. You knew who could solve your problems. You knew when it was time to go home. Reality is not like this at all.
In the real world fairness is just a word. You will not be guaranteed a fair shot. You will have to make your own way and nobody wants to hear you whine. If you're the better person, or if you're deemed the person that the boss can make the most amount of money with, you'll get the job. If you play by the rules or are willing to bend them for profit you'll get to keep that job and you can make lots of money. You won't be happy, but you'll have lots of things and for a while that will be enough.
Then one night you'll lie awake and you'll feel a lump in your throat. Your eyes will get red hot with tears, from somewhere deep inside a voice will say, "this isn't what I really wanted to do with my life". At that moment you will have finally graduated for real.
In that moment of doubt you will find out the truth about yourself. You will also find out that things and money are nice but they aren't important. A title, a car, a job, a nice house are good but they are nothing like the feeling of finding the happiness that lives inside you.
Many of you will take jobs just for a check. You will go home miserable every night. You will drink away your pain, say awful hurtful things to someone you dearly love, and then you'll bring children into that toxic environment. Don't do it. Find the passion that lives within you before you find your passion for another.
If you want to be a cowboy go find a horse. If you want to be singer go find a band. If you want to be a disc jockey or a chef go find a radio station or a kitchen and be your passion. Sure, you might not have a lot of money but you'll have happiness. If you truly believe in yourself, you'll find a way to make a living doing what you desire.
Don't settle for what you're supposed to be, excel until you find out who you were meant to be. Take chances and feel the emotions of every single day. Don't let anyone who doesn't believe in you the way you believe in yourself be a part of your life. Even if that someone answers to the name of mom or dad.
This is your life. This is your adventure. You're not guaranteed anything but the opportunity to make the most of the time we call now. You can spend your now sitting on your thumb watching a clock and hating your boss just so you can go home to a relationship that was once fueled by lust but is now the reason you hate your life.
Or, you can dance with your dreams. You can let those that don't matter laugh all they want. They can never hear the music that you'll hear anyway. Don't be afraid to be different. Don't be afraid to swim against the current. Don't be afraid that it won't be perfect, be more concerned that it might not be unless you make it happen.
This journey we call life is about to have a new pilot. Very soon you will be given the keys to the universe. It's your turn to drive. Choose the route you were born to take and just know that only love is real and kindness will take you exactly to where you're supposed to be.