The atmosphere in Clarkston is thick with endings and new beginnings.
Seniors just graduated from Clarkston and Renaissance high schools, students throughout the district are out of school for the summer and some students have said goodbye to their old schools and are preparing to venture into a new building next school year.
While many Clarkston kids will be spending the summer relaxing on beaches, playing outside and being generally laid back, recent graduates will be preparing to take the next steps in their life, post K-12 education.
Whether that be getting a job, going to college or trade school, or joining an organization such as the military or Peace Corps, life is about to change dramatically.
I encourage you to embrace every exciting opportunity you get in this next chapter of your life. Opportunity for a promotion? Apply for it. Chance to visit another country—whether for work, education or pleasure—do it, experience a new culture, see the world.
You’re young and energetic and now is the perfect opportunity to try something new and take that leap of faith: make mistakes, add a minor, learn a new skill, leave your comfort zone.
You can invent and reinvent yourself a dozen times before you turn 20, follow your passions and do what you like to do. Older, pessimistic people will take grievance with the fact you choose to believe the people who said you were special and you could accomplish anything, but those people can’t see outside of their own lives, and your life won’t be like that.
Of course everyone’s not going to be a NASA engineer or change the world, but not everyone wants to.
Find your passion, find something you love and do that, always. Maybe you’ll find a job that incorporates it, maybe not, but that shouldn’t stop you from doing it.
Learn to be happy with your own life and with who you are, without the outside distractions.