Remembering RHS Graduation 33 Years Later

It was a beautiful day and we graduates were looking grand in our long white dresses and a bouquet of red roses for the ladies, and white tuxedos for the guys. I'm told it was a rather unique way to dress in that day and age for high school graduates, and remains so to this day.

I don't remember any of the speeches or words of praise which were heaped upon us, nobody does and it probably is just as well. All the words about the life before us, the places we will visit and the things we will do truly must be done by each of us, that is, nobody can do it for you.

No amount of dire warnings or sophisticated advice is going to be heeded on an RHS Graduation day. Maybe some small part will be reflected upon much later in life, but for the most part it is all lost in the pageantry and knowledge that people who have for a long time been a significant part of our lives will be no longer. We will all make the promises to keep in touch and write addresses in one anothers Yearbooks but in the end we all know these are promises we are not intending to keep. Maybe we shouldn't try but we do in an attempt to be true to this high school self, which is quickly being transformed into an adult by an age old ritual which begins on the football field in the afternoon in front of family and friends, and ends sometime the next day after a visit to the Jersey shore.

I like the fact the entire ceremony is larger than life and gives everyone a chance to remember at least one part of it for the rest of their lives. Whether it is the country club dinner, the party at BF in the middle of the night, or the early morning swim at Graydon, there is more than enough going on that each one of us can call some small part of it uniquely our own.

Congratulations to today's RHS graduates! May your experience today be pleasurable and fill you with memories which will bring a smile to your face for a long time to come.