I WAS talking with my sister a few days ago and she mentioned that my nephew, her eldest child, was already graduating from elementary and was considering his school options upon entering seventh grade. That made me do a double take. Seriously? This little urchin of a child is now going to middle school? How could time pass by so fast?
But who am I kidding? Most of the people I went to school with now have their own little bundles of joy and are embracing parenthood. I had to ponder if this was the juncture in one’s mid-life when one’s ought to slow down and reconsider some of the other aspects of life that need more focus on. But that’s another story.
But who am I kidding? Most of the people I went to school with now have their own little bundles of joy and are embracing parenthood. I had to ponder if this was the juncture in one’s mid-life when one’s ought to slow down and reconsider some of the other aspects of life that need more focus on. But that’s another story.
It is that time of the year once again when we pull our hats off to all these victorious students who are graduating from different school levels. Commencement exercises after all mark the triumph of being able to brave those long and demanding days spent inside the academic portals. For kids like my nephew, it’s a time to look forward to the cliché-ish but very memorable travails of a growing adolescent in highs school. For high school graduates, it will be a moment to stand in the midst of crossroads and make the life-changing decision of opting for a college course. For college graduates, welcome to the harsh, real world. In short, every successful leap over a bump still leaves us facing quandaries and indecisions. They come in all levels and in all aspects of our lives.
Going back down memory lane, graduating from grade school for me before was about the excitement of being and feeling ‘older’—of saying goodbye to the old strapped and pleated uniforms and looking forward to proms and balls. Choosing where to study was just secondary, so long as I knew that some of my friends were going to the same school as I was. But it was not the explorative high school life that would deserve bizarre pages in the yearbook. I didn’t even get to enjoy those sensationalized promenades and I was already looking forward to going to college. Then I was there, balancing a life that was just centered on acads and the dormitory routine. It was a phase where I was thoroughly acquainted with stress and the relationships I had with the people around me were compromised because college just has this way of eating one up. That subconscious wish to experience a racy university life remained to be just an absurd whim as I was already yearning for my first job. A job that lasted for a day and which got elevated to jobs that lasted for three months or six months until I decided to yet again pursue another level before settling for a job that made me stay put for three years. I thought that was what I wanted to do for a longer period but then I woke up one morning and said I should try working elsewhere.
To put it in a nutshell, life seems to be about wanting to get by one hurdle just so you could go on pushing against the next, and the other one after that. It’s like a whirlwind of choices and reckless decisions and actions where more often than not, we are confronted with dilemmas and unending binds, mires and jams. We’re too focused on how to get over these tight spots that we miss the things that are worth our indulgence.
And it certainly does not help that we do all these at a breakneck speed.
So now I believe I should tell my nephew to just make the most of all his incoming high school years; to take things slow and not be caught up in the rush of growing up. That things are not to be hurried, that being too serious is drab and jading and that sometimes he even try to get reasonably racy and risky to make his incoming years more animated. That he stays focused on his rightful priorities but still always have fun.
And I know that goes for you and me as well. We should slow down so we could enjoy life to the fullest. After all, given the fleeting nature of this life, not a moment should be wasted rushing through it.
Going back down memory lane, graduating from grade school for me before was about the excitement of being and feeling ‘older’—of saying goodbye to the old strapped and pleated uniforms and looking forward to proms and balls. Choosing where to study was just secondary, so long as I knew that some of my friends were going to the same school as I was. But it was not the explorative high school life that would deserve bizarre pages in the yearbook. I didn’t even get to enjoy those sensationalized promenades and I was already looking forward to going to college. Then I was there, balancing a life that was just centered on acads and the dormitory routine. It was a phase where I was thoroughly acquainted with stress and the relationships I had with the people around me were compromised because college just has this way of eating one up. That subconscious wish to experience a racy university life remained to be just an absurd whim as I was already yearning for my first job. A job that lasted for a day and which got elevated to jobs that lasted for three months or six months until I decided to yet again pursue another level before settling for a job that made me stay put for three years. I thought that was what I wanted to do for a longer period but then I woke up one morning and said I should try working elsewhere.
To put it in a nutshell, life seems to be about wanting to get by one hurdle just so you could go on pushing against the next, and the other one after that. It’s like a whirlwind of choices and reckless decisions and actions where more often than not, we are confronted with dilemmas and unending binds, mires and jams. We’re too focused on how to get over these tight spots that we miss the things that are worth our indulgence.
And it certainly does not help that we do all these at a breakneck speed.
So now I believe I should tell my nephew to just make the most of all his incoming high school years; to take things slow and not be caught up in the rush of growing up. That things are not to be hurried, that being too serious is drab and jading and that sometimes he even try to get reasonably racy and risky to make his incoming years more animated. That he stays focused on his rightful priorities but still always have fun.
And I know that goes for you and me as well. We should slow down so we could enjoy life to the fullest. After all, given the fleeting nature of this life, not a moment should be wasted rushing through it.