Warriors Jump...

Warriors Jump... The season of commencement, in its many forms, is nearly complete. It seems everyone graduates from everything now. I grew up thinking graduation was an accomplishment for major milestones; now it seems to be held for a strong sneeze. Needless to say I was cheerful, with a slight eye roll, upon receiving news on Mattigan's eighth grade "promotion". The fact I have two high school aged daughters is all at once surreal and overwhelming. They are on the cusp of such a magical time in their lives. As I watched Mattie's class file in I saw such a diverse group of bright faces carrying a wide array of expressions. I looked around at proud parents carrying the same hopeful pride I feel anytime I witness my girls from a distance in the environment that belongs to them and I am a mere guest. The ceremony began beautifully and was paced so nicely. The adults did not co-opt this moment to hear their voices fill the courtyard. Prescient remarks were made and then the floor was turned over to eighth grade speakers. The three chosen speakers were lovely, articulate, and age appropriately sweet. It was the final speaker, a boy named Sam, who filled me with delight. Sam took the idea of this "promotion" from eighth grade to High School and turned it on its ear. He used wit, observation, irreverence, and query as a tool in his writing. I found myself remarking aloud, "brilliant" and "adorable" to the empty seat filled only with white roses next to me. This young man, of fourteen years, composed a speech Mark Twain would have admired and made me wish I was clever enough to write. Sam turned the word "Promotion" upside down claiming it was something for which nobody could get excited. He compared being promoted to making boxes for two years and being told you'd now be allowed to "make these boxes and smash them too". He spoke of all the hard work that went into the academic years that led to the cusp of high school and added "and all this time we were growing up too...one night I went to bed with a size ten shoe and woke up an eleven."...I loud laughed at this remark..not the benign lol everyone writes that is a lie...I laughed...loudly. I was laughing not just because Sam wrote with cleverness and humor; I laughed because it was a joy to witness such an original, fertile mind. Not many of us would take the word "promotion" as a pejorative. Being promoted, to us adults, is to gain ground in stability and finance. It's the inch by inch, crawl to a goal that somehow makes us safe... Sam was right!! It is boring!!! Safety is a false sense. The universe will take what it wants and never give it back no matter how you prepare if that's what it has set its expanded consciousness to do. The universe doesn't reward those who seek mere promotion; it champions those great, creative, out of the box thinkers, like Sam, who suggested this class not be promoted but rather-- JUMP!! I wish I had a copy of the speech to share but when he said "Jump" I wanted to spring from my chair and cheer! He spoke of how that word connotes action and encompasses energy. He spoke of the effort woven into the word. I will never hear the word "jump" again without seeing this young man delivering a speech so original in content I was put to ease. I sat alone at this event but felt a piece of a larger puzzle. When we start to wonder and worry about the generations that lie ahead and how those who come after us will fair I am going to command my anxiety be still. I am going to recall this boy and his originality in thinking, I am going to call upon the intelligent faces that filed past being called the class of 2021, I am going to remember I've raised Warrior Girls and other present moms and dads have been raising modern day Mark Twains, Rosa Parks, and Pablo Picassos. I believe our kids, and theirs, and beyond, will define words differently through the filter of new creative minds...I believe future generations will indeed smash the boxes they refuse to think within... I believe, it is today, as throughout the ages, Warriors have chosen to Jump... Always!!! xo🐸d