Graduation

Here’s a little short for you to enjoy!

Graduation

The tempo of the evening had slowed dramatically. The euphoric feeling brought about by his fourth rum and coke would have to be savored and not pounded like the previous cocktails he’d enjoyed tonight. His buddies had adjourned already and he was the last one here. This little hall had been their favorite pub. They had come here religiously, several times a week over the last three years. It was their home away from home, their Cheers, but would they still come after tomorrow?

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow he and a couple thousand others would cross the stage and achieve the dream their parents had sought for them longer than most of them had been alive.

Graduation.

After tomorrow, there would be no more all nighters, no cafeteria-blues, no more security text messages from campus cops, but there would also be no more late night talks with his friends in the dorm common rooms. No more studying abroad on scholarship, no more school sponsored trips to the apple orchards, or the incredible student events that happened so often.

The story of his life was about to make a dramatic shift and instead of being excited, the opposite was filling his soul. He was terrified. He knew that the paradise of college life had designed him to be a real adult and while he had a real adult beverage in hand, the obscene reality was that a stone wall stood between him and what was really out there. He had no idea how to start paying his loans. He did not know how to get an apartment. ‘Do you do that through Craigslist? Isn’t that sketchy?’

He did not really understand how to apply for a job beyond the grounds of his campus. When he really thought on it, the most he had learned in the last four years was how to turn in papers on time and how to make it appear like he had poured ounces of effort into them, when in fact they were started, completed and printed merely minutes before being due. His parents had always done everything for him. Even now his mother was likely pressing the red college gown and it’s black hood in preparation for him to wear tomorrow.

A sick feeling filled his gut.

Would he have to start pressing his own clothes after tomorrow? He had seen his mother do it a thousand times, surely that task couldn’t be that hard.

The plain road of adulthood beyond the safe and comfortable confines of campus seemed wildly intimidating, but one thing was true. Come what may, he would meet it head on. Surely there were YouTube videos on how to do everything and anything he would ever need beyond the marks of his degree. And if not there, Google had yet to let him down.

The moment of panic passed and he adjusted comfortably on his barstool. He motioned to his friend and bartender for his final check.

Taking the last sip of his adult drink, the graduate swore that he would be ready. Ready to meet the world and be a real adult.

It was getting late and tomorrow was his big day.

End.

Happy graduation everyone! May there nothing but fair winds and following seas ahead for you! Don’t let the impending demands of adulthood unravel you, dear graduates. It’s going to be ok. Honestly, mostly everything you don’t know can likely be found in the circle of those you trust, your parents, your siblings your friends, but most especially on YouTube.

Your humble author,

S. Faxon