Okay… I have had this written for 3 weeks… ugh. Posting is hard sometimes. Finding time on Tuesday’s to actually format the post and add all the links and graphics is time consuming. the writing part is easy (sometimes). I have gone through the post again to make sure that the timeframe makes sense… but there could be some weird temporal anomalies in the writing.
Anywhoozlebee… The end of the ‘School year”has happened, and much has happened for the family… My oldest, Little Man for you old school readers, graduated from college a month ago, and my youngest, the Dutchess (iykyk), has now graduated from High School 2 weekends ago… This is a transitory summer for the entire family it seems.
Without significant surprise, the topic this week is “Graduation.” Thanks to ChatGPT for coming up with the questions, they cost us our environmental future, but I got 40 questions to choose from. Woooo! The Future!
Anyway… More in the recap, for those of you who read stuff. Let’s answer some questions.
1. What does it actually mean to “graduate” from something?
You have crossed a threshold that is societally recognized as a stepping stone.
2. Why do graduation ceremonies still feel emotionally powerful even when they follow the exact same formula every year?
Typically one only pays attention to graduation ceremonies for people who matter in your life. Graduations happen every year, but one typically only pays attention to the ones that are germane to them. Last years’ graduations didn’t matter, because my kids were not graduating last year. Screw those losers who graduated last year.
3. Is graduation more about accomplishment or transition?
Depends on how hard it was to get to the graduation finish line. For me, my High School graduation didn’t mean that much, because I was really good at high school, and I hated it vehemently. That being said, college graduation meant a bunch.
4. Why do so many people feel lost immediately after reaching a major goal?
Sometimes when you are aiming for something it becomes all encompassing. The accomplishment of that all encompassing goal leaves a void where motivation used to live. When you hit your target, where else are you supposed to aim?
5. What is the emotional difference between graduating from high school versus graduating from college?
High school is often the graduation from complete dependence to partial dependence, while college usually represents the move from partial dependence to (hopefully) independence.
6. Do parents experience a kind of graduation alongside their children?
Just into being old. I am old… oh god, I am so old. My back hurts.
7. What friendships survive graduation, and why do others quietly disappear?
It is hard to tell. Some friendships that you think will survive, do not. Conversely, some friendships that were good, but not great do survive. The quiet disappearance happens due to lack of required contact. Sometimes things just fade away.
8. Why does graduation create nostalgia for moments people were desperate to escape while they were living them?
Soldiers have amazing stories of love and enjoyment and camaraderie from their times in active combat zones. There is a certain nostalgia for surviving the times of stress with the crew you survived it with… HS is a less intense version of that. Just because it was an enormously stressful period does not mean there isn’t fondness when looking back on the actual lived memories formed during that survival.
9. Does modern culture overemphasize college as a “required” life milestone?
Yes, however, less and less stringently as college costs go up.
10. What is the first thing people discover after graduating that nobody warned them about?
It means significantly less every moment away from it. Its emotional value depreciation is steep. People who buy HS class rings or hang their tassels proudly off their rear view mirror, often stop that within 4 months.
11. Can someone “graduate” emotionally from an old version of themselves?
Yes… usually with a major life event and/or intensive therapy. I can say the emotional graduations I have done are due to combinations of both. Go to therapy, y’all.
12. Is graduation secretly a socially acceptable ritual for grieving the end of an identity?
I do think it is a grieving ritual wrapped in a celebration.
13. If knowledge is infinite, is graduation fundamentally an illusion?
Graduated cylinders measure things by using (arbitrary) markings etched into the glass… they do not limit the amount of liquid that is possible. Graduations are not illusory as much as they are markers.
14. Which pop culture graduation scene best captured the terror of the future hiding behind celebration?
Hmmm… I cannot think of a pop culture graduation at the moment. Let me cogitate on this for a few. Ummm… Legally Blonde?
15. Are some people permanently stuck in an emotional sophomore year?
Oh my goodness, yes. You know those people who peaked in High School… yeah. Those people.
16. What does society currently prepare people to graduate into?
Debt
17. Is there a point where ambition itself needs to graduate into wisdom?
I certainly hope so.
18. What would it mean to graduate from fear?
I think it would mean that it would free someone from limiting themselves .
19. In pop culture, why are graduations often filmed like both endings and funerals?
Graduations are the ceremonial funerals of previous versions of ourselves. The problem is that we usually do not know whether to celebrate the future version or mourn the old one.
20. Can a society fail to graduate morally even while advancing technologically?
New technology will always outpace the moral accountability surrounding that new technology. So, society is always lagging behind technological advances, and therefore cannot graduate morally… unless we first establish what is the moral graduation standard.
To recap:
LLM’s are not good at generating truly creative questions
They “think” asking how a teapot would graduate or something like that is clever and unexpected
In time they will be better at it though
My youngest and the youngest of my blended fam is a HS grad now
She also totaled her car last week
She’s good, but the car is done
The money making job is having some issues right now due to fuel costs
Still got work with them, the hours have just been reduced
My son moved back to DC
He’s making a go of it in a different city
I am happy he is doing his own thing
I am sad that he is leaving
I am excited for him starting out his adulting journey
I am worried for him starting his adulting journey
It was the best of times
It was the blurst of times
Good lord, I am old… let me know of you got that reference
The youngest is starting up college in the fall
Wow, I am truly getting older than I realized
I need to draw more
I need to write more
I need to post here more regularly
For all 6 of you who are reading
Thanks for reading if you are
Thanks for not reading if you don’t
Have a great week everyone