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Health & Fitness

Brace Yourselves, Class of 2012

Attention Amity High School Graduates: Prepare for the cold splash of reality that has a glimmer of all the hope you've been told about.

As an Amity High School Grad, my interest was obviously perked at the recent class of 2012 graduation. I wasn’t able to attend the ceremony due to my schedule, but just reading the article here gave me the sense that, unfortunately, the general message given to the students haven’t changed.

Not that lack of originality is an issue. How many high school graduations have occurred in the last few years? There can only be so many unique ones. But the one line that hit me was that people who graduate Amity can “do anything.”

Call me skeptical, but I have to call superintendent John Brady on that. He could at least admit that was a lie.

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I’m not saying that the class of 2012, or any high school class, doesn’t have potential. But if he truly wanted to give a line that would prepare them for the real world, do what David McCullough Jr. did and tell everyone they’re not that special.

I’m not just jumping on the bandwagon here. In my own graduation speech (which I only wrote for Expository Writing, sadly), I broke down several graduation clichés and said why they aren’t true. The final one was that graduation is “a bright day filled with hope and promise.” I specifically said that this was the worst one to mention.

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Leaving high school means facing all the true challenges every student has to face when that bubble of security their parents made around them begins to burst. You need to deal with money, careers, new relationships, and creating your own sense of security in today’s world. After one year away from home and trying to build a case for a career in journalism, I can say for myself this very tough, putting it mildly.

When I graduated, I felt utterly terrified. You can almost see it in my attached picture. It was a day when all my new struggles were popping up in my life, and that I would have much less help in dealing with them. And no one would give me special treatment for them, because everyone else in that gymnasium was going through it too.

So yes, enjoy the weekend of celebration now, Amity Grads. Enjoy it before reality jumps back at you.

The only truly good thing about this occasion that the class of 2012 should be embracing is this: now that you know all the hurdles ahead of you, you can start to truly take steps to overcome then.

This isn’t a bright day, but it lets us begin walking the rough road towards the real light.

Certainly not a pleasant outcome of graduation, but the sooner these former students accept this, the faster they’ll be on the path to independence and success.

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