About 165 young people were given their walking papers in Estevan on Monday night.
It wasn't a mass layoff notice, it was their high school graduation day and it was an important piece of paper they received. Those walking papers indicated that they had achieved a required level of competence and were now qualified to take the next step. For some that means further educational adventures, for others it could mean travel, for yet others it will be a major leap into the regular workforce after perhaps a few years of part-time employment as students.
What we wish for all these graduates, is that the next chapter in their books of life, be filled with enthusiasm and yes, even a good dose of idealism.
Generally speaking, it is our young people who want to change the world. They don't mind living, working and travelling outside the box. They want to make differences and who are we to discourage them? We all need to embrace change. Sometimes we flounder with it, but we should always encourage it since that is the only way we can ever move forward.
Encouragement is what we owe them still. We have helped educate them, we've helped groom them to accept certain levels of responsibility, we've provided some financial and moral wherewithal to take them to that next new level. Now it's time for these young people with the freshly printed walking papers to start making their own decisions, carving out their own directions, and if they're really wise, they'll still listen to those who they are leaving in their wake, to pick up a few more tidbits of information and advice that they can carry into their new world of independence.
The next step, as noted earlier, will lead some to more classrooms while others will be heading off into a world of work and responsibility. And for those people, we urge them to seek and find jobs that will give them pleasure, because nothing can give a person greater sense of well being than getting up each morning and heading off to a job they enjoy eager to perform and willing to contribute positively.
Too often we find ourselves selling out our dreams in favour of the larger paycheque or the politics of the workplace.
Not everyone will land their dream job, but we urge those who are heading out there to find employment, that they at least look for job satisfaction along with that seemingly important paycheque.
As they complete chapter after chapter of their books of life, they will eventually discover that it's more about the people they meet along the way, not just the payroll.
But they'll have to learn that on their own. It could be in Chapter 6 or it might not come until Chapter 27. That's what makes life so darn interesting sometimes.
