The month of June is always a reflective time for me as my students end their high school careers and move on to the next chapter of their lives. I’ve written before how it’s the one time I wished I was “famous” enough that I would be asked to deliver a commencement address or write an article to share my congratulations and wishes for continued success.
But this year, I’m actually glad I’m not in a position to have to do that. Imagine the pressure of having to figure out what to say after a year like this one? What words of wisdom could I impart that would be more meaningful than all that these students have learned on their own from successfully navigating their way through a high school career where almost half of it took place during a global pandemic. I am truly humbled by the resilience of the students I’ve worked with and excited about how their experiences will enhance their already impressive values and goals and the impact that will have on their future and our world.
That’s why this year, if I was delivering a speech or writing an article, the wisdom I would choose to share would be the lessons I’ve learned from them:
When life gives you lemons…..: Talk about creating lemonade, LOTS and LOTS of it. The resilience of these amazing seniors hit new levels of “bounce-back” and elasticity as they continued to utilize their strengths and skills to handle each and every problem or challenge, learn from the experience and apply that to the next challenge they encountered.
Find a mentor (or two) along the way. This is one of the six factors for success as listed in the Gallup-Purdue University Study and one of the top criteria my students mention they’re looking for in a college experience. Having someone who has “been there, done that” to check in with and bounce ideas off of is a great way to strengthen your inner voice, build the ability to trust yourself and make sure that your GPS coordinates are set on “choose to” vs “should”. And it’s one of the many reasons my students cited that helped them get through this unprecedented year and in particular, choose their colleges. Many of them, both this year and last year, made that choice sight unseen. To do so, they definitely took advantage of all the resources available and exemplified one of my favorite quotes: “Consider the advice of others, but trust yourself in the end”.
Trust yourself: And that they did! A lot of their ability to handle all they did was due to how well they knew themselves and how they were both willing to seek the advice of others and then take the time to pause, reflect and listen to their “inner voice”. They knew and trusted that even if the choice they made didn’t work out exactly the way they expected that it provided them information they could learn from to help them choose the next step in their journey.
While it is true every year, this year especially was an illustration of my other favorite quote about how life is a classroom and we are both students and teachers and how grateful I am each year to have the opportunity to learn from such awesome and amazing students!