Critical Creig: Everything is a new beginning

CREIG P. SHERBURNE

I got to cover Atascadero High School’s graduation, and it was a good one. The speakers were smooth and inspired, the audience appreciative, and the graduates themselves positively shined.

There were inflatable beach balls, masks of Principal E.J. Rossi and more smiles than I could shake a camera at. I had a splendid time.

It got me thinking about new beginnings. I didn’t graduate in the normal sense. I took the high school proficiency test the second I was allowed to and checked out of my Los Angeles area school.

All these years later, heading back for the graduation made me feel really positive about the future. What I saw was a bunch of genuinely happy kids leaving an excellent program and heading out into the world.

Obviously, it made me think of my daughter. It made me think of a lot of things. It made me think that I don’t actually feel older now than I did when my girl was 2 years old, yet here she is in the summer before starting sixth grade. Sixth! Grade! When I was in sixth grade, I was one of The Big Kids, finally.

When she graduates from high school — and goes away for school someplace back east — in six years, I won’t be 40 yet. And if history is any indicator, I’ll have changed very little and will still be pretty much just an overgrown 14-year-old on a bicycle, listening to punk rock and questing for new beer.

All this thinking was prompted by Principal Rossi’s commencement speech.

“There is no next thing that once you get or once you accomplish, will make everything perfect,” he said. “As you go through life, don’t allow yourself to get distracted by what’s there, choose to make the now the best it can be.”

I think he brings up an excellent point. We Americans often forget to stop and smell the roses. For instance, in what country but the United States could a magazine called “The Futurist” exist?

But I think keeping an eye to the future is important as well. While I’m planning for my daughter to go away to college, I’m taking time to read to her in the evenings. While I’m concerned about her next school year, I’m also playing cards with her at the dinner table.

Looking to the future while smelling the roses in the here and now is hard to do. Our brains often get a single idea stuck in them sideways and all we can think about is that one thing.

At the moment, my daughter and I both have something lodged sideways in our brains. For her, it’s seeing the new Pixar movie, “Brave.” She’s literally counting the days till it comes out. (Yes, of course I’ll take her to see it, probably more than once.)

For me, it’s my sister’s family coming to town. She lives in Ohio where her husband is earning his Ph.D in physics. I love her two oldest kids but haven’t met the third yet. They’ll be in town for a couple weeks and I look forward to throwing the kids into the pool and drinking beer with my sister and backpacking with my best friend, her husband.

I think that my daughter and I are both looking forward to smelling the roses right now. It feels wonderful to be in such good company for such a good thing.