It’s that time of the year again when teenagers who look eagerly, and anxiously, to the future, don caps and gowns and walk into stages across the country to receive their diplomas.
Covering local high school graduations often brings with it a feeling of nostalgia for my own high school days, which took place three decades ago.
I fondly remember graduating from Charlottetown Rural High School around this same time, back in 1997. The Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island to mainland Canada had just opened, the internet was still in its covered-wagon days, and, with social media and Spotify eons away, the young people of that era hung out in shopping malls and the parking lots of fast food joints, and purchased CDs to get their music.
It's truly hard to believe so much time has gone by since I, like the youth of today, celebrated my graduation from high school, and my entry into the world of being an adult.
While our society may be different now than it was in the 1990s, teenagers are still largely the same. Upon graduating from high school, these grads will seek to secure gainful employment and strong educations, to settle down, get married, and have families at some point. Even though times have changed, young people are not much different from those who came before them in previous generations.
Back in 2017, I attended my 20-year high school reunion. It was a very unique experience running into folks who in many cases I hadn’t seen in two decades. Some of these former classmates whom I played sports and partied with hadn’t changed a great deal, while others had changed a lot.
It will be no different for the Class of 2025, regardless of whether they graduate in Lac La Biche, Cold Lake, Toronto, Vancouver, or Charlottetown. Years down the road, they too will participate in reunions and (hopefully) will look back fondly on their high school days as they raise their own children and prepare them for the same thing.
