You know, looking back, I probably learned more in the first few years of school than I did in the later ones.
Oh
sure, high school has taught me a lot of useful things. Equations for
surface area. The periodic table of elements. How to drop an egg three
stories without breaking it. You know, all the things I’ll need for a
career in writing. But, truthfully? Looking back, it’s the lessons I
learned early on in life that prepared me for the real world.
Preschool
was a well of knowledge; it’s where you learn that unlike at home,
you’re not the most important person in the world. There are other kids
out there, people your age and your level that you need to learn to get
along with. Some of them, you like a whole ton. Some of them, you want
to push off the top level of the playground. That doesn’t matter. They
are all people, and all of them deserve your respect.
Kindergarten
is where you learn to treat others how you want to be treated (a rule
that isn’t followed by nearly as much of society as it should be). Where
you learn that recess is the exception, not the norm. Where you learn
the twenty-six letters that will make up every picture book, every
novel, every piece of paperwork you’ll ever read. Where you won’t
appreciate the naps that you’ll yearn for later in life.
Then,
later on, you learn another lesson. It starts with cursive in third
grade, and is culminated by being forced to play “Hot Cross Buns” on a
squeaky recorder. Sometimes, in life, you have to do things you don’t
like. Things that seem pointless, and sometimes they really are. The
lesson you learn, however, is that sometimes, that’s just life. You need
to put your head down and suffer through the things you don’t like in
order to reach the things you do.
The
more school you go through, the more teachers and bosses you learn to
get along with (despite how much they make you want to scream). Group
projects come and go, leaving the knowledge that picking up someone
else’s slack is, unfortunately, something we all have to deal with.
And
now, we’ve reached graduation. A point in our lives when we are
expected to be adults, to make our own lives and blaze our own trails.
But, even as we head off to our “real” lives, we shouldn’t forget what
we learned as kids.
That sharing is always going to make friends.
That though sticks and stones may break your bones, words hurt more than you’d think.
That you need to clean up your own mess.
That saying “I’m sorry” is sometimes the hardest thing to do.
And,
most importantly, that you need to raise your hand. To speak up, and
speak out. Because in this world, you need to learn to make yourself
heard.
Good luck, seniors. And no matter where you go and what you do, don’t forget kindergarten.
