By: David Conde
The end of the school year leads senior students, at whatever level, to celebrate the successful achievement of an educational journey. The end of that journey however, also represents the beginning of another one.
Commencement and graduation ceremonies are necessary rituals that give testimony to the community by those completing an important segment of life. It is not unusual for keynote speakers at these events to talk about the future and what is a waiting the graduating class.
It is in those words that we begin to see the strong connection between commencement and graduation. That is that the end is also the beginning.
To be sure, a variation on “commencement” was in my vocabulary since very young but in Spanish. I remember my mother admonishing me about doing something that she disliked with words like, “Ya vas a comenzar otra vez!” meaning that I was starting to do it again.
The word graduation was also in my vocabulary in Spanish but in variants that did not mean finishing up. It was more like doing things slowly and in degrees.
Since I did not graduate from high school in normal fashion, I did not get to experience the graduation ceremony where the term commencement is prominent. My first encounter with the two concepts together was at my graduation from college, attended with my parents.
These terms first appeared in the literature of the ceremony that included the program and the list of graduates. Still, when I first saw the combination, I wondered about its meaning. The words stayed with me and became more significant as my educational career evolved. The questions of meaning around the beginning of something (commencement) and the ending of something (graduation) became a central theme of my literary research and the basis of my doctoral dissertation.
When I think of commencement and graduation I think about the notion of dying to one way of life and being born to the another one. This death and birth cycle is everywhere in our personal stories and the rhythm of our civilization and human existence. The cycle is also part of our individual and cultural experience and appears at every stage of our lives and also when we die. For example, I am reminded of the Quinceanera (at age 15) that celebrates the passing from childhood to womanhood for young ladies in the Latino community.
This also applies to Western Civilization as it was reborn in the Renaissance toward the middle of the 15th Century and reached its zenith in the 20th. Now it is in decay, dying and in need of rebirth again.
All that aside, this is a happy time when our children and families are celebrating an important milestone in their educational journey. We are going to commencement and graduation to witness and honor the special achievement.
For myself, I am attending ceremonies for two of my granddaughters Ivy and Renaissance. Ivy is graduating from Flores Magón Academy and Charter School and is going on to North High School in Denver this fall.
Renaissance is graduating from Stanley Lake High School International Baccalaureate program in Westminster and will be attending the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. It is a proud moment for me as it is for all the families that want to see their children advance.
There is no better time spent than at the graduation of a loved one. Joining your family, honors the sacrifice and achievement of a young person that needs the encouragement and support to navigate the future.
