Editorial May 15, 2017 Issue

Education, graduations, and lifetime milestones

Barbara Vining

When I was a young person growing up in the United States, there were two graduations most of us looked forward to—high school and college. But today there are graduations from kindergarten, middle school, and junior high school, as well as high school and various degrees of higher education.

Certainly, it’s a grand thing to have completed a course of academic study. Graduation time is cause for celebration by those graduating, and for parents who are so very proud of their children’s accomplishments. It’s a time of progress—something new to look forward to.

Graduation time can be an especially happy time for a college graduate who knows what is coming next and is looking forward to it with eagerness and confidence—perhaps a new academic pursuit for an advanced degree, or a good job in a career one is thrilled to be starting. But graduation time can also bring a sense of trepidation about one’s future—perhaps because of student loans to repay, or having no job pinned down, or some other factor. And when you get right down to it, there can be uncertainties for children, as well as young adults, about what comes next after any graduation.

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