Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
Graduation, whether it be from high school, from a technical college or university is always a family event worth celebrating – especially for the graduate. It is an accomplishment worth celebrating. And my family is no different – we will be celebrating the graduation of two grandchildren, grandson Cody Barnett from high school in Gainesville Georgia and granddaughter Erin Shaw from Brigham Young University in Provo Utah with her Masters in linguistics. Erin speaks five languages.
Not only is graduation day a major event in the graduate’s life, it is often a scary event in the graduate’s life. It is the day that they walk across the stage to receive their diploma, a piece of paper declaring to potential employers that they are prepared to enter the cold harsh competitive world that lies beyond the doors of home or of the institution issuing that piece of paper.
Most graduates dream of this day and anticipate its coming with joy. Some think of it as their day of deliverance – a day of finally becoming free of all restraints – no more home work, no more restraints of coming and going from parents and no more research papers to hand in.
But for others it is often a lonely day, a day of separation from close friends, of wondering what lies ahead of them in that real world of high competition. But for the wise graduate who has listened to wise counsel from family members and teachers it is the first day of the rest of their life – a life that can bring joy or it can bring misery – depending on the choices each graduate makes as they walk off that stage into the real world of life.
Grandson Cody, as a realist, realized early on that advanced education is a must in the real world that he would soon be entering, and he also realized neither he nor his mother could afford the ever increasing costs of higher education so he plans to follow his three cousins into the military and take advantage of the educational opportunities the military offered his cousins. Granddaughter’s Erin’s graduation in linguistics provided her the opportunity to enter the work force immediately as an assistant professor of linguistics at BYU. Some here will remember Erin for her involvement in helping bring Lacrosse to the Cherokee County school system several years ago.
The graduates will learn soon enough that their teenage dreams do not always materialize when confronted in a world of constantly changing ideologies, where the forces of evil will ever be in opposition to the forces of good, and that temptations of the tempter will be ever present striving to influence them to abandon the correct principles taught them by loving parents and entice them to succumb to the tempter’s tempting enticements billed as the ‘good life’ but lead to habits that often are self-enslaving to alcohol, drugs and pornography – habits that often lead to crime and imprisonment.
Learning to make good choices is often the hardest thing any individual will ever do. And without a foundation of being taught correct principles by parents and church leaders many falter and make the wrong choices – often choosing friends that are often counterfeit friends. Hopefully as they leave their school friends behind to enter their new competitive world, they will choose their new friends wisely – friends who will uplift and strengthen them in their moments of stress, where one bad choice can affect their entire future. And hopefully they will choose to live free remembering that freedom is not free but must we worked on daily. One must ‘choose’ to be free. Several years ago I served on the Cherokee County grand jury where I learned just how drugs can and do totally destroy personal and family lives. Seventy percent of cases presented to this grand jury were the result of choosing to use drugs. Often these addictions begin by making a bad choice – a choice to do drugs, to be cool, to be accepted by ‘cool friends.’ But their choice became a trap that destroyed their life and family, and they are the ones that fill our jails today. Graduates, drugs bring enslavement, not freedom.
I, like today’s graduates, had no clue about the world when I left high school in 1945 or left college in 1958. But I survived with the help of a good family, God, and a lot of hard work and making good choices.
Graduates of 2011 – enjoy your graduation day – and now choose well.