As we diverge to our own paths, I'd like to leave a few pieces of advice behind as a graduating senior. I want to focus on three main points: Time, Beginnings, and Love.
Beginnings
I think it's fair to say the majority of us highly dislike change--whether good or bad. Especially the "end" of high school. I remember as a high school freshman I was excited to move out and decorate my dorm already, but now that it's hovering over me, it seems a lot more real and terrifying. But if it wasn't scary then I suppose it wouldn't be change now, would it? It can be unnerving because you don't know what's on the other side of change. Though, a lot of people don't really fear change, they fear the process of change and the aftermath of it because it's unknown.
Beginnings are tricky because there's really no true starting point to a beginning. We all have this unifying idea that graduation is the "end" of high school and the "beginning" of college or adulthood, but I don't think you can dictate when a beginning starts, or when an ending finishes because everyone is always experiencing different events at different points in their lives. Even if everything or everyone around you is changing and growing, doesn't necessarily mean that you will too. You change when you are ready.
What I'm trying to say is that you may not hit your "beginning" your freshman year in college--it might not even kick in until your junior year of college or until after you have graduated. And there may be times where you don't feel like you've had this "fresh start" everyone has been talking about, and that's okay because your "beginning" will come when you are ready, not when your mom, friend, brother, cousin, or uncle is ready. A friend may be graced with a three internships and may have planned out his or her entire life, while another might be switching majors every two years and staring at a blank job application. You might be sixty wondering if you should try becoming an artist whereas your grandson has already sold hundreds of paintings since he was twelve. And a younger or older family member might be married, or traveling, or might not have the faintest idea on where their going yet--and that's okay. A chapter in your life may be longer than a chapter in someone else's life because all of our stories are distinct.
So to all seniors: it's okay to not know where you are in life or where you are going. You don't have to be the best out of everyone, you just have to be the best for yourself. Every person has to find his or her own way to live by, so it's okay to not have a beginning yet. There's no need to force your story, just write.
P.S. I didn't think I had a lot to say...but I guess so, therefore I'm splitting the letter into three separate posts! Click here for Time, or Love.
"The beginning is always today." —- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley