June marks the time of year for graduations from preschool, grammar school, high school and college. To honor this time of endings and new beginnings, I thought I would share a few lines from a letter I received from my parents’ family friend the day I graduated from high school, entitled, “Take It or Leave It.”
Look for a mentor – a sort of intellectual coach – somebody who will help you choose courses, especially your life course. The really good ones will teach you to think, not just learn. And yes, there’s more to newspapers than the front page and sports. Try editorials – particularly ones you don’t agree with – just to build your tolerance for open-mindedness. Fall in love at least once, and fall in love with life over and over. Learn how to fight early. You’ve got to learn to have big-time disagreements, complete with anger, with people of consequence in your life – so that both of you get heard and both come through with your dignity intact. Your emotional nature is probably pretty well formed by now, but not your social or intellectual character. You’re in charge of what happens from here on out. You own this chapter!
Here’s to new chapters, advice that never gets old, and to taking it – not leaving it.
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