Graduation a beginning

May is graduation season and whether that idea brings a sigh or a smile, you can’t deny the energy surrounding the event.

Some of you may be hitting the books for finals, buying air horns, sending out announcements or preparing yourselves for the traffic that will inevitably form along the Parks Highway next week. Whatever you’re doing as a part of all that is graduation season, I thank you. And if you’re a graduate this year — congrats!

My generation is slated to enter the “real world” at a time of low spirits. Jobs in the Lower 48 are short in supply, the economy goes up and down more than one can follow, bank accounts are shrinking, politics are dramatic and there’s not a lot of action in general happening for our country. It’s a tough setting to go into to start the rest of our lives, but high school seniors seem less concerned and more courageous.

What I think is most motivating and exciting about this year’s graduating classes — or any group of students, really — are the possibilities. As I’ve talked to classmates about what their plans are post-high school, there are a lot who don’t know, but are comfortable with not knowing; or, those who know where they’re going, what they’re studying and what they want to do with their lives. I know a group of friends biking around Europe for a part of the summer, and another group of students that recently traveled to Ecuador to build a school for children. At this stage in life, the door is pretty wide open, and it’s something special to watch where every one of us goes.

As a body of people, minds, opinions and ideas, we have the power to create something amazing. A graduating class, especially at this time of politics and world events, has much more propensity to do something to alter history or change the course of life for themselves or those to come.

Look at the Occupy Wall Street movement, supported by many fed-up college students, the success of the nonprofit Invisible Children publicity campaign driven through social media, which is used by an astounding 98 percent of young adults, or the age of the winners of the Google Science Fair — three young women ages 13, 16, and 18. All are young, motivated individuals or groups doing something spectacular. The power of our country’s young adults is currently set to be at the stage where it once was in the 1960s during the civil rights movement, the 1970s during the Vietnam War or even the 1980s in terms of ruling popular culture.

Maya Angelou’s “Commencement Address” is most applicable here. Among reflections of caps and gowns, Angelou writes, “Of all your attributes, youth, beauty, wit, kindness, mercy/Courage is your greatest Achievement … The order is large/The need immense … One person, with good purpose, can, constitute the majority.”

As I look around the Valley I see students who are already using their ideas and energy to better our community, like students at Burchell High School imagining and planning for the Valley decades down the road, the many kids who have completed a community service project on the way to achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, and those who give their time outside of school to shelters or senior centers. The ability and energy to make a difference is already within us, but it’s still up to us to use it to make good things happen.

Graduating students are at a rite of passage — one path to another, as some say. No matter what analogy or idiom is used to describe it, graduates are looking at a blank slate before them on which they will create the rest of their lives. The energy and attitude of seniors in high school is infectious — ask any one of them about their plans post-high school and a smile will cross their faces and they can tell you all about what they’re doing come June or September. It’s a good energy to have around; it’s the best thing in the world to see people excited about their lives.

But I want to extend this prospect of wide-open spaces. If you’re 35, 65 or a 105, don’t think your ability to do or achieve anything is out the window. Get excited about life again. Have you always wanted to try kayaking? Go for it. Maybe you’re good at a craft of some sort; find a place to teach or share that ability. There are opportunities everywhere, even in our small communities, to do something amazing. Where we may be small in size, we can still be large in heart. We all have the power to be life-changing.

I want to run a marathon before I’m 25. I want to visit every state in the United States. I want to take part in the day of Holi in India. I want to work for the World Café. What do you want to do?

Dylan Gette-King is a graduating senior at Palmer High School.