Graduation

It’s been around three weeks since I graduated high school, since I walked across the stage to the rest of my life as the cliched phrase goes. It was a deeply profound moment for me, as I stood in the practice field in my bright red graduation cap and gown, cooking in the cheap plastic I was dressed in, shielding my eyes from the sun. I checked my phone and I saw a message from my mom, a voice message forwarded from my aunt. In the message she broke down crying saying how proud she was of me. That was the breaking point, I saw my whole family in that moment with that one message. All the sacrifice and all the struggle. The strive for education, the fact that my grandparents did not complete middle school and now here I am completing high school. I am not the first one in my family but the significance feels just as important. I see all the hopes and dreams of the women in my family reflected in me, to some graduating high school is just checking off a box for them but to me I saw this as a culmination of my fight and my effort. I felt like I wasn’t just doing this for me but for my family.

On the subject of doing things for yourself versus for others, I believe that you should always do things for yourself, you make the decision whether or not you also want to do something for someone else. In that moment I realized that I felt the comforting weight of my family and the pride I had for myself for this accomplishment. Education is incredible, it is life saving, and it is a privilege. I saw my privilege, I saw how much it meant, and I walked across that stage in a blur. I don’t even remember exactly what happened after my name was called I just remember shaking a few hands and being so happy and pointing at my diploma posing for a picture. I also remember seeing my friend in the audience because of their bright green hair. Other than that it was like I didn’t hear or see anything. It was pretty euphoric, I was very content and I still am so incredibly proud of myself.

I couldn’t help but think of those who couldn’t.

I thought of my grandparents, hard working people who had to stop their education to be able to help their family. It was a sacrifice, one that was extremely common. They love me with every bone in their body, they have built their lives with the foundation of work and grit, my mother has worked her whole life she always tells me. I belive in education and I believe in work, I know what has been given up for me to have this life. I carry that with me with every decision and every acheivement.

I thought of the 20 children that were murdered at Sandy Hook, class of 2024 just like me. My mother held me closer that day in first grade. A reality that shows how irreparably broken this country is. They did not get to graduate, we are here in their memory, their peers are there for their memories.

I thought of the class of 2024 in Gaza, children in warzones, children going through a genocide. Many of them cannot graduate and many of them will not graduate. We graduate and we remember and we don’t forget and we do not look away.

I thought of the girl I’ve known since I was in kindergarten. We were supposed to graduate from the same school, but we drifted away, for the better, but I look in the M-N section and I remember she should be sitting here near me like we did for 10 years. I graduate and she does too just in different moments having lived very differently for the last two years. However life has a funny way of bringing some people back, you never know the intention, and now we’ll be in the same city again.

I thought of the 9th grade version of me. She so badly wanted to quit. She couldn’t even get out of bed. I will never forget the day my parents had to lift me up out of bed, I was crying, I was so defeated. Isolation took my soul out of me. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it.

But here I am. There I was.

Education is a privilege. And it is a Blessing.