Graduation Season

If you are feeling a little low on energy and want a pick me up, go to a high school graduation. You could simply crash any graduation, you don’t need to know anyone graduating. They are such feel good events.

I went to the AFSE graduation yesterday.

This is the fourth class that has graduated from AFSE and I think I have been able to attend every graduation. It really is such a great way to spend a couple of hours.

I like the procession music, I like the faces on the students as they walk in. It is a mix of apprehension, pride, and excitement.

I like the speeches by the students. I like the speeches by the teachers and school leaders.

I like the handing out of the diplomas.

I like the joyous hugs from proud family members after the ceremony is over.

There really is nothing quite like the sense of opportunity, promise, and achievement that pervades high school graduations. If you have an opportunity to attend one this week, I strongly recommend it.

#life lessons

Comments (Archived):

  1. LIAD

    heartwarming post.i like how clicking on the image leads to google photos – which has its own comment thread. G can bootstrap its own soc-net off embeds, much like YT did back in the day.

  2. awaldstein

    Got back from a family members high school graduation in Ft. Collins Colorado a few weeks ago.Tiny progressive public school, highly diverse class of 27 graduating predominantly with the kids presenting, singing, talking.A revelation and inspiring to see people at 18 or so with a life ahead with such idealism and skills and openness to diversity and embrace of their personalized views of the world.Like a launch pad to a new future.Inspiring and hopeful both.

  3. jason wright

    this sounds like an interesting behavioural sub culture. event crashing vicarious voyeurism. feels ever so slightly creepy. i like it. ha ha.

  4. Mike Zamansky

    I was never much into the ceremony thing, particularly after the first decade or so. The speeches are usually long and not memorable (excepting of course the time I was given the honor of being faculty speaker at Stuy and my best buddy from grade school the keynote, cough cough ๐Ÿ™‚ ) and watching 1000 kids have their names individually called is a bear.The magic was always afterwards – waiting for the kids at the exit to greet them with a smile and a hug. They can’t tell if you’re in the audience but you can see that it means a lot to them to be there during their day. It means a lot to us too. Truth be told the SOP for the CS / Math crew at Stuy would always be go early to help out, sit through the speeches, duck out during the roll call and get back early enough to be at the exits.The real magic day though is the last day of school. Both happy and sad. Yearbook signings, kids trading stories of the years and plans for the future. My favorite and least favorite day of the year.I won’t have college grads at Hunter until next year but I’m guessing it’ll be a very different vibe.

    1. fredwilson

      You are a pro at these

      1. Mike Zamansky

        Spent many a year honing that important life skill ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. David C. Baker

    Most of our kids’ friends loved HS graduation because they pretty much knew they were getting a car from their parents afterwards, too. ๐Ÿ™‚ We said no car after HS, but graduate from college with no debt and we’ll buy you a new car. Then you’ll have a college degree, no debt, and a new car. That’ll set you up nicely for years to come.I do love graduations, too. It marks a great boundary with an open door to the future. HS did so much more for me than college did, too. I think that’s probably true for a lot of people.

  6. kenberger

    We live near the John Lennon High School in Berlin, which evidently has a musical specialty, no surprise.Most nights the last couple of weeks, bystanders were treated to magical choral renditions of Bohemian Rhapsody, you can’t always get what you want, and of course, Imagine.Too bad graduation is now past us; how great to be able to immediately share the thing they just studied.

  7. Mac

    Very nice. After twenty-five years of attending high school and college graduations, I couldn’t agree more.Looking at the expressions of the educators, who have given so much of themselves, and that of the parents, who have invested so much of their love parenting, adds even more to an already special evening.

  8. sigmaalgebra

    I went to one of those once. It wasn’t anywhere nearly as nice as you outlined!

  9. Vasudev Ram

    Obligatory:Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford University:https://www.youtube.com/wat…”Stay hungry. Stay Foolish.”32 million views.

  10. Guy Lepage

    Hm.. Kind of like watching an inspirational movie or video clip. I might try this sometime. Thanks for the tip.

  11. Richard

    Optimism for degrees for showing up? Half of CA high school graduates donโ€™t having the reading and math skills to enter college.If you want a real buzz – try attending a 12 little league game.

  12. gregg

    so true fred, great advice! even though graduating from college is a “bigger” accomplishment both of my daughters’ high school graduations were more emotional than their college ceremonies.

  13. Amar

    This is a great reminder! I had 4 opportunities in life to celebrate graduation – for 2 of them the celebration culture did not exist and for another, I was so busy I missed my graduation ceremony. The one I did make, I did not have any family around me. So I have never experienced the richness and significance of this first hand and consequently tend to under value it.I am consciously working at changing my outlook so i can be the proudest, loudest, goofiest cheer leader out there when my daughters go through his life event :-).