Thoughts on Graduation

Today I am graduating from high school. The profound importance of this occasion is not in any sense marred by the fact that it is being held indoors due to weather (although this might be the opinion of many of my classmates). I suppose that I should note here, with requisite nostalgia-dripped detail, how this represents an end to a section of my life that I will hold in my heart forever with fond memories. Now, I'd like to make it quite clear that I am not bitter about high school, however much so it may seem. In fact I've quite enjoyed my time spent in high school. I've made a number of good friends, found myself drawn intellectually and personally in a variety of unique of interesting directions, and found my perception of the world around me profoundly altered, for the better. Something I've always been concerned about is the manner in which knowledge seems to pass through our mind like water through a sieve, and how we so often forget what we learn soon after we have learned it. However right now that doesn't strike me as absolutely true. I cannot remember many of the equations that I learned in Chemistry AP right now. I can't remember the important principles involved in the rhetorical criticism of literature, nor can I remember the subjunctive tense in Spanish. But these are things I have learned, and the fact that I have learned these things, that at one point these things were stuck in the foremost and most prominent edge of my consciousness seems to be unalterable evidence of the importance of learning. I have learned something and because I learned something, I now see the world through a different lens. And now I may not remember exactly what I have learned, but my changed perspective is evidence of this learning, this enlightenment. And that, in my opinion is the most important aspect of education.

I don't feel that I'm writing as good as I usually do, but I felt like I needed to make a note of my thoughts on the day of my graduation.