I went to a high school graduation last night

You’re a real breath of fresh air, OP.

Yeah, I was the commencement speaker, R1.

Just smoke copious amounts of pot,.silly!

they vape.

oh pee, you're looking at the glass half empty.

personally, i didn't feel hopeful at my graduation. I was just bored and relieved to even be graduating.

The point is, you look at all the miserable people in the world today, and at one time they were sitting there as graduates - all full of hope and promise.

For that one brief moment, they each thought that they had the world in the palm of their hand, and they were going to conquer it.

Then 20, 30, and 40 years later.... reality hits them.

The world is just a horrible place that grinds you down, until you die.

Life sucks, then you die, OP.

So many of them will end up on pills and booze like Liza.

That's the mindset of being that young. You are unable to imagine life 10, 20 , 30, 40, 50 years from now. Or, that you will age must faster that you think you will. There are so many variables, so many obstacles, good memories and bad memories. In recent years I to wrap my head around how it's been over 40 years since my high school graduation and that retirement is on the horizon. Make your days fruitful and memorable.

[quote]You are unable to imagine life 10, 20 , 30, 40, 50 years from now.

Why should you? I am 70 and cannot imagine life 10 years from now.

Look on the bright side. I bet some of these new graduates are already miserable now!

[quote] I am 70 and cannot imagine life 10 years from now.

That would be best, all things considered.

I have never been able to accurately imagine what life will be like for me in the future. No one can.

[quote]The Grim Reaper

It's taking forever, asshole.

Some of them have a shitty home life and will be moving on in a few years. There's that.

[quote] I am 70 and cannot imagine life 10 years from now.

We're talking about teenagers, grandma.

Seniors. Not Senior CITIZENS.

Get off my lanai r16.

OP that just shows that you are a decent human being. I, on the other hand, would be jealous that I'm not their age, and would have the smug satisfaction of knowing the life ahead for them.

What's your contact info OP? I want you at all my parties.

Merrily we roll along, OP.

Want to go camping? You seem like a riot.

M

A

R

Y

!

OP couldn't get her pork chop penetrated in a Blind school for Horny Men!!!!

And no shit, OP- its called REAL LIFE.

Behold...

Most of them can't wait to get out of high school hell and move on with their lives.

They're finally free and can start to be adults - hell yeah you should be smiling and having fun.

Thanks for your thoughts O.P. Naysayers and pisspots go wank yourselves and leave the thinking and reflecting human thoughtful empathetic people alone. Oh yea and get a life while you still can. O.P I was just thinking about life sort of along the same lines. Your empathy for the plight of the graduating was touching. I was recalling just today the tricky transition from childhood to adulthood and the varying levels of successful adaptation my contemporaries had to this vicious ass world. The people who joined the military out of frustration and out of aspiration and how most of them now are all messed up and get money to stay home and not be a nuisance and disruption to the workin tax payin folk. The small town people who messed up their minds on drugs never left their shires and now get not enough crazy money each month and eat at their momas table still. The very few that made it with their minds and their health intact are the vast exception. It sure is a vicious life we lead. Dog eat dog is the default accepted where our dreams are mostly subjugated under survival. It sure Seems like we could do better. I feel for the future generations with all the economic pressure and competition. Climate change. The common shit and shower and go to work lives where aspirations are always on hold as survival takes precedent. The artist the philosopher who will always be anonymous and drive a cab but in their heart be a great lover and their head a great thinker..

Climate change is gonna come for them all. We have at most a few years until the polycrisis comes to a head

I was a minor celebrity in a small city in the Northwest and as such was asked to speak at a high school graduation in a nearby town.

The high school was located in a small logging community and I knew that most of the six or so grads that day would likely not go on to college, but would choose to work in the logging industry or in a trade,

My message was simple but controversial: in effect, life is gonna suck. Forget what your teachers and parents promised you. You know, rainbows and puppies. Your adulthood is going to be difficult and you will be challenged like never before. And you will often be disappointed.

Hoo boy. Parents were pissed. Some told me to my face that I had ruined their kid's graduation.

A year later, I was grocery shopping and one of the graduates from that day approached me. I was prepared for the worst. Instead, the young woman wanted me to know that she and the other grads were extremely grateful for my controversial advice. She said they all talked after the ceremony and decided I was the only adult to be honest with them. She said their parents and teachers had lied about the future.

Instead, it was just as I had warned. Life can be tough and not always rewarding.

I never forgot that encounter.

I feel you, OP. Bruce Springsteen songs or movies about high school heroes and their sad lives get me, too.

For me, high school was miserable, and I was glad to get on with my (up to now mostly good) life. But for a lot of kids, life's not gonna be great.

The more important question OP did any of them have BDE? If so, did you offer up your bussy as a graduation gift?

That's an amazing story, R28.

Good job.

Sometimes I feel like an anomaly. I was an average student who hated high school. But even though adulthood hasn’t been perfect, life has turned out so much better than I thought it would.

Whenever graduation season rolls around, I have somewhat similar thoughts, OP. Not quite as negative as you, but I do think about how being sent out into the world at 18 can be rough and a rude awakening.