(An Open Letter to Our Daughter and All Graduates)
The weather this week reminds us that summer is just around the corner. While we eagerly look forward to spending time on Long Island Sound and playing tennis and the opportunity to enjoy longer days with family and friends, there is a population in our community that might be looking at summer with a bit of apprehension. It is graduation season, and for some, that brings uncertainty.
This week Greenwich Academy and Brunswick held their graduation ceremonies. Our Facebook feed is full of pictures of our friends’ children graduating from colleges near and far. Soon Greenwich High School will hold its graduation as well. A whole slew of our younger community members will embark on new adventures to college and beyond. That can be intimidating, both because of what they are leaving behind and what they are about to face.
To all the graduates, high school and college, we start with a quote from the venerable Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” You have just accomplished an amazing feat. It is cause for celebration. In your darkest moments, when school seemed overwhelming and you thought no one understood you, did you know you would one day stand here, a graduate? Look back on your four years. See how you have grown physically and mentally. Every challenge you faced, you overcame and made you a better person. You have become a computer with vast amounts of knowledge and experience stored and ready to be accessed as you need it to help you navigate the future.
Take time to embrace your classmates and teachers, because all of you undertook this journey together. It may have seemed a lonely journey at times, but rest assured it was not. There has always been a support system there for you. At first it would pick you up when you fell. Slowly, over time, it would encourage you to pick yourself up until we watched with pride as you told us, after the fact, about overcoming an obstacle all on your own. Your friends became an important part of your support system: all of you learned from a co-op of collected and shared experiences. Now, as you embark on your next journey, your network of friends will move around the country and around the world. That does not mean they stop being your friends or support system. It means you have new places to explore with them when you visit.
As you stand in this doorway, looking to what the future holds, understand that it is perfectly fine to be nervous and uncertain about what will happen. It is healthy, even. Take that step forward. This is not a time to hide from challenges that, inevitably, lie just up the road. In fact, challenges in your life never cease and never should. They are what help you continually grow and evolve into the best person you can be. So face them head-on, and once you have been successful, face the next one.
Never stop learning. What you have learned over the past four years has been like drinking from a fire hose, and in hindsight you would not have had it any other way. Sure, you may have looked on with longing as some of your classmates appeared to merely be sipping from a water fountain. People go at their own pace. The important thing is to never stop learning. Continuing with Dr. Seuss, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Let learning be your roadmap to a fulfilling and well-traveled life.
To all graduates, we are proud of you. Your accomplishments and who you have become enrich our community and our lives. Enjoy this time. Smile. Embrace. Take that next step forward.
