I don't know what freedom and fun that high school students think lives
just outside the confines of home life, free room and board, little
to no responsibility and a place where all of your friends gather for
a several hours a day but it is a lie. By May all of the seniors were
ready to move on to what we thought would be more freedom, more money
and more fun - because we were stupid. Whatever the motivation or
compulsion to escape - freedom or exile was almost ours, ready or
not. We were out of school a week or two before graduation and that
is when it sunk in that I would not be achieving my goal of speaking
at graduation. The graduation was held at the local college and it
was the basic talking and blah blah and then we got to walk where you
get your diploma and then walk over for a picture. I had toyed with
the idea of doing something funny and memorable but I chickened out
and did nothing. After the ceremony I got pictures with my family and
went to say goodbye to all of the underclass friends of mine that
were in attendance. We hugged and made the un-keepable promises we
feel we must make on parting and I went home to get rested up for the
senior all night party. It was supposed to the momentous marking of
the greatest accomplishment of my life but it was one of the more
anticlimactic afternoons of my life.
