Graduates are finally entering the real world? Truth is, they've been in it for years now

Dear Graduates of the Class of 2022:

Congratulations! You have successfully completed all the grades of your hometown education and are now free to pursue your lives – to create your own stories – as never before.

I never thought I would say this, but here goes: I do not envy you. The world is a mess right now.

But here’s the thing: if ever there is a class of graduates that is best positioned to get out there, work hard and make a positive difference – to turn this ship around, as the ol’ expression goes – it’s yours. Even more so than your immediate predecessors, your high school experience during these past four years has run the complete gamut as forced by global affairs.

Your freshman year, way, way, way back in 2018-2019, was a breeze, right? Well, okay, maybe not a breeze, as you were at the bottom of the school’s pecking order, surrounded by older students, and charged with navigating the biggest and most complex school in your district. But it’s safe to say your freshman year was at least normal, right?

But then came your sophomore year, in which that normalcy was upended, in wild and dramatic fashion, by a new threat that none of us could see: a virus that spread with alarming ease, killed hundreds of thousands of people, sickened even more, and – we now know – laughed in the face of our belief in March of 2020 that we needed just two weeks to “flatten the curve.” You all went home from school on that Friday in March, thinking you’d be back in good time. Little did you know.

Then came your junior year. If you attended school in RSU 21 or in Sanford, you spent the majority of your year, if not all of it, getting your education through the hybrid model, which blended in-class instruction with at-home learning. All of those adults in your life who used to be on you constantly about all the screen time you spent on your cell phones? Now they were telling you to log onto your laptops and report to your virtual classes. Some of you thrived under this model. Some of you struggled. Whichever camp you fell into, you no doubt learned a lot about yourself.

And then came your senior year, which, given the return to class full time, had the promise of . . . well, if not outright normalcy, then at least a new normalcy, albeit one with a whole new set of challenges. As Valedictorian Sofie Dumas noted in her speech at Kennebunk High School’s graduation ceremony on Sunday, June 5, many of you struggled to speak up in class or communicate face-to-face with each other when you first returned to school full-time in September of 2021. You had to overcome the awkwardness, shyness and uncertainty that inevitably follows periods of tumult and a degree of isolation.

“Most classes started out pretty silent, as they had been online,” Dumas said. “Throughout the year, I heard more voices coming into conversations, and we began rebuilding the peer connections that we had lost in distance learning. These little moments of asking a question or contributing to discussions allowed us to get here. These moments of courage allowed us to become who we are today.”

So what I said above, Dumas said first: if there is a class that knows the world can be challenging, tumultuous, unpredictable, unfair and even downright scary, and knows how to adapt to such circumstances in order to keep moving forward and thrive, it’s yours.

Hardship builds character when seen through with perseverance and all it implies, namely adaptability and hope. Hardship sharpens the mind and strengthens the spine. This is true: those of you who have walked through the darkness of the COVID-19 pandemic have an advantage over those before you, who may have coasted through their high school years and, no matter how hard they worked, entered the real world untested.

You’re probably getting lots of advice right now, as those who are older than you offer whatever words of wisdom they have gleaned from the years they have on you on this rock we call Earth. Hear them out. You may find their words helpful or inspiring. Yes, listen to them – but listen to yourselves too. You’ve been through a lot. You’ve experienced much. As a result of these past two historic years, you too have wisdom. You too have learned a thing or two about life.

The late, great movie critic Roger Ebert learned something important about life too. By writing down his insight to share with others, he has ensured that the rest of us are able to learn his lesson sooner in life than he did. You’re no doubt getting bombarded with quotes at the moment, but here is one more. I turn to it every time I see suffering in this world and am personally left speechless. I posted these words from Ebert on social media on the day after 19 children and two teachers were slain at a school in Texas a couple of weeks ago. It was the best I could do, and I offer these words from Ebert to you now.

“I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”

Shawn P. Sullivan is an award-winning columnist and is a reporter for the York County Coast Star. He can be reached at ssullivan@seacoastonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Graduates are finally entering the real world? They're already there