graduation

The class of 2019 graduated three days ago. Fortunately, they just missed the rain, though the clouds enhanced the drama of their graduation pictures. I’ve made many good friends in the class of 2019. Some of them I knew through my dorm. Some of them I knew through sports. Others I knew through classes and extracurriculars. Everyone in that class, in fact, everyone at this school was brought together onto one campus from all corners of the world. We knew each other through our common ground: PA. The question is, what happens now? 

The day I moved out of my dorm, I couldn’t help but notice how I may never see members of the graduating class of 2019 again. It was difficult to say goodbye and I honestly wasn’t quite sure what I should have said. It’s sad to think about, but reality and the nature of probability dictate that I will never see most of these peers again until reunion twenty years later. I became acquainted with these 330 students through a mutual platform: PA.  It’s scary to think about what happens when that platform that bound us all together is no longer there. 

I suppose life just moves on, and in the strangest sense, no one really sticks beside us in life. It’s odd, and perhaps a little pessimistic, to think that every relationship we have in our lifetimes is rooted in a third party. My best friend asked me recently, what happens when we graduate? My friend will definitely move back to China and I will likely move around in the States. 

We meet a vast array of people in our lifetimes, but it’s change drives us apart. I’ve written about this before, but I think it’s worth restating how life is just like a train. We all hop on and off at different stops and at each of those different stops, we meet different people. When the people we met at that stop get back on that train to continue their journey, each person will get off at a different stop. We may never get back on the train at the same time or end up at the same stop again. 

Nevertheless, congratulations to the class of 2019 and thank you for being the role models in my time in high school. I hope I see some of them on that train again.