Now and Then in Graduation
We have four fundamental seasons from which we define the weather conditions under which we all live – Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. With this said, we also have seasons that are based upon experiences in life. Within one is “graduation season,” particularly when the young graduate from high school. Last week’s CV Forum profiled this year’s graduating class from CV High in a thoughtful article. It made me wonder what these young graduates think about their lives at this moment in time. As a graduate of CV High in 1963 I reflected on my own life and the world we were graduating into at that time. An added thought emerged in my mind – what were individuals of the same age thinking a century ago when they were graduating from high school? Did the graduates of 1924 have similar thoughts to the class of 2024? As a person who has an addiction to history and literature, I wondered and wandered.
As a sentimentalist, I retrieve evidence from which to explore this subject. It comes from a small autograph book that my mother had from the high school year of 1924. She was 16 years old and lived in the melting pot of our nation - Brooklyn, New York. I read things written by her friends to her. They reveal the hopes and dreams within them. Their messages are funny, poetic, and skeptical. The stage of their time was different from now, yet similar as well. It makes me wonder about the possibility that a common ground resides within all youth as they graduate, regardless of the year or even century in which they live?
As I read the messages from 1924, I reflect upon the historical conditions of that time. The U.S. had emerged as an important player on the global stage because of the necessity of going “over there” to stabilize Europe from the ravages of WW I. It reversed our national desire from “staying here” in isolation, to going elsewhere out of national and international needs. Out of the turpitude of terrible war the cloud of darkness would only increase in the years ahead. Although the 1920’s were roaring with energy, it would crash with the Great Depression in 1929. Prior to then, authoritarianism was growing from deep within the caves of the European experience and elsewhere in the world. In 1933 Germany would join the parade to move the world toward more war and darkness. Little did the high school graduates of 1924 know what was in store for them. Their fate and future would be more challenging than imaginable. The vigor of their youth would be redirected toward the need for valor to protect the past and present for the future.
As I return to this moment in time – 2024, I wonder about those entering upon adulthood on the stage of time that now exists, as well as the one that is emerging as the future. Are young adults feeling the same as those from a century ago? The stage and conditions may be different, yet are the hopes and dreams the same?
As I return to look at the messages within my mother’s 1924 autograph book, I wonder if the youth of today are writing in their own notebooks, whether on paper or upon their electronic devices. When the year 2124 emerges, what will the graduates of high school think about the class of 2024? Will high schools even exist at that time? Will America still exist? Will the emerging technologies, particularly “Artificial Intelligence,” change the way young people think and act? Will the human experience be different, or the same as now? No answers dance upon the stage of my mind. It might be a good discussion to have among the thoughtful individuals that gather in my backyard to discuss things like this. What do you think?