At this time of the year, hundreds of teenagers will take a walk across a stage, shake the superintendent’s hand and wave to relatives up in the nose-bleed section who came to watch them graduate from high school.

These young men and women are finally on their way. They can’t wait to leave high school behind, move off to an exciting new place and finally begin to live their lives as adults. They’re ready to shake the small-town dust from their shoes and forge a bold new path for themselves.

For some, however, that dream will stay a dream. Many don’t have enough money to travel the world or they can’t pay astronomically high college tuition prices. Completing that path will take place inch by inch, not yard by yard.

Worse, we didn’t hand them a gold-plated world. There’s a war across the ocean, a tough recession, unemployment rates in the double digits and lunatics running around proclaiming it’s end of the world.

If that’s what it means to be an adult, perhaps staying a kid a bit longer isn’t such a bad choice.

But many of them don’t have that option. They became adults years ago, whether it’s because they went to work to help pay the family bills or were forced to punch the clock to pay their own way.

So in this world of gathering storm clouds and bleak skies, what can the Class of 2011 look forward to?

Plenty.

First of all, hope. Throughout the history of the world, hope that things will get better has brought people out of the doldrums and allowed them to believe they can rebuild a better world for themselves and the people around them.

They can also look forward to the benefits of personal hard work. For some young people, their parents made sure they avoided difficulties. These “helicopter parents” tried to do everything for their children except let them stumble and regroup.

These parents unwittingly robbed their children. Undertaking something difficult and not giving up until one finds success is the only true path to long lasting self-confidence and self-achievement. Sugar coating a mediocre job doesn’t do a teen any good.

As adults, they’ll face difficulties and they’ll be on their own. When they take on a hard job, struggle and grit their teeth to finish, that teen has personally discovered the key to true self actualization.

If they wish, the Class of 2011 can become the movers and the shakers instead of the shoved and the stepped on. This class can take up the gauntlet of cleaning up government, making sure schools and charities have enough funds to keep running and refuse to accept “that’s the way we’ve always done it” as the law of the land.

Class of 2011, when you shake the superintendent’s hand, don’t think of it as a farewell gesture. Think of it as the hand of the older generation infusing you with a mission to go out and right wrongs. Believe you’re a positive force in the universe, someone who’s actually going to change the world for the better.

Ladies and gentlemen, that journey begins in earnest the moment you flip that tassel on your graduation cap from the right side to the left, over your heart where belief, hope and optimism reside.

The challenge is yours. Now go on out there and change the world.
 
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.