On your graduation

For those of you finishing high school, this is the first time, probably since kindergarten, that you are free of the mandatory schooling our American society sees fit to impose on each of its citizens. For those of you graduating from college, this could be the end of your formal education.

Whatever level you are leaving, you are embarking on a new stage in your life, one focused on work. No longer is learning your job. Now you must find a way to pay the rent and feed yourself. Dumpster diving and mooching off the parents are not acceptable strategies.

Most people settle for something that pays and isn't horrible. Many settle for something horrible and financially fruitful. The truly unfortunate have to resort to low-paying jobs that bury the soul within a pit of repetition. If you're lucky, you'll be able to sneak some pennies for retirement so that one day you can free yourself.

And, with graduation about to slip past and the future reflected in your eyes like a stormy sea, it is time to let go of childish fantasies about life.

• You can't be whatever you want.
For a variety of reasons including intelligence, achievement levels, behavioral record, economic status and luck, you will have access to some professions but not others. It is the rare few for whom the stars align in such a way that the world opens like a Pandora's box of delight.
• You may not get everything you want or think you deserve.
• The world is not fair. If you haven't figured that out by now, the future will indeed be a turbulent sea.
• Everything might not be OK. The good guy might lose. Life is not a Hollywood blockbuster. It's more like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, except without the benefits of foresight or a guaranteed happy ending.
• "No one here gets out alive."

Despite the fact that we all recognize the fragility of life and the reality of death, many of us act as if we hope that maybe it's not true. Make the most of life. Do your best. Be grateful for what you have. Most things aren't as serious as they seem. Not even this column.

Stafford County Sun editorials represent the opinion of the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on his page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily the Stafford County Sun.