Finales and New Beginnings
Posted on June 16th, 2011
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 3:22 am
Watching my little brother graduate from the same high school I was a founding member of was much more emotionally complex than expected. It drove home that the risk that was taken by going into a brand new school really was worthwhile. I was proud to see my brother graduate. I was nostalgic and proud of the professors who had stuck it out at the school and taught both me and my brother. I was proud of what I’d helped to create. I was somewhat sad to see that now my last deep connection to that place is gone. It also underlined something that has been true for a while now, but now with his graduation has much more clarity; my little brother is no longer a boy, but a young man, and one with a truly bright future ahead of him.
In a greater sense, it told me there was a bright future for the alma matter of my youth. As much as I slacked off there, and as ambivalent I have been at points about my time there and whether it had been worthwhile, it suddenly seemed obvious to me that yes, if not directly for me, for those who benefitted in my wake, yes, it was worth it. Besides, it did remind me, for the first time in a while, just how much I had benefitted from it, how good it was for me to have gone there, and how much care I’d really recieved from my teachers and the staff because I saw it reflected in those students. It reminded me of some of the great times I had there, and that really, I had been focusing in my recollections of place somewhat negatively for no reason. Those were good years.
While there are a number changes that all seem to becoming together at once for me, this clarified and underlines these are good things.
There is hope, and there always has been.