| 06/09/09 10:06 AM |
#155
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Scott Standridge
Okay, it took me a while to find it and type it up, but here it is at last--this was my valedictory address at graduation. I resisted the very strong urge to revise it as I went.
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We cried.
It was a strange place, a strange new world we found ourselves in. We were no longer surrounded by the warmth we had become accustomed to. We were helpless and scared, and had no way of knowing where to go.
We laughed.
Mother and Father were there, giving us the love and warmth we needed, taking care of us and pointing the way. We had no cares, no worries. Our food, our clothes, our health were all taken care of for us. The future was too far away for us to see, too distant for us to worry about. We slept an innocent, untroubled sleep.
We dreamed.
Countless days passed. A childhood faded away in the fluttering of our sleepy eyelids. And when we awoke, the world was different. We looked out to the horizon and saw, like a speck in the distance, an uncertain goal which drew us to it, made us leave the warm, safe shelter that was the only home we'd ever known.
We crawled.
Slowly, inch by inch, we started out on the road leading to that undefined something on the horizon. The road often split, and we stopped, not knowing which way to go. But there were always people, there was always someone there to point the way. The road was sometimes rocky, sometimes smooth, sometimes straight or winding. We used what we learned along the way to navigate the path, the only certain direction being forward.
We stood.
Raising ourselves from the dusty road, we could see more clearly the directions we had to go. The spot on the horizon, the vanishing point that was the end of our journey, had grown larger as we drew closer to it. It loomed, obscured by clouds and still far away, in the very center of our sight. We knew it was a doorway, an entrance to another stage of ourselves, and we longed to pass through it.
We walked.
No longer trusting completely in the voices that told us the way, we chose our own paths, made our own ways ever closer to that dark doorway. Finally we walked off the last mile, smiling as we reached for the latch that would open the doorway, reveal our future.
We stopped.
On the other side was a green forest of beauty and life. The birds sang sweetly, and the air was fresh and clear. We looked down at our feet, and saw the ending of the road, cut off abruptly at the door. We looked ahead and saw no path. We paused, wondering how to go on, to make our way without the road that had become our home. Then we smiled, realizing that every day of the journey had prepared us for this, that we were ready now to strike off the road on our own. Closing the door behind us--
We ran.
--1989
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