Graduation for Grown-ups

This time of year is always bittersweet.  The students whom you've watched grow and mature throughout the year, or over the course of several years, have completed the necessary tasks to receive their high school diplomas.  They leave for their graduation parties, family vacations, beach week, and eventually, hopefully, college. This year's graduation exercises were especially poignant  because I felt like I was graduating along with the senior class.  Since starting high school, the chapters of my life have been written in four year increments.  Four years (essentially) at Christchurch School; four years of college, eventually graduating from the College of Charleston; four years at Charleston Collegiate.

One of the best pieces of career advice I have been given is that you know it is time to leave a place when you have either outgrown it or your vision and the institution's vision no longer coincide.  The last four years have taught me so much about who I am as an educator, a student, colleague, and friend.  They've taught me what I want in a supervisor, faculty, and in my students.  And these last four years have taught me exactly those characteristics that I do not want.  I am excited looking at what the future holds for Joseph and me as we begin a new chapter of our lives together; and I am heavy hearted when I think about the amazing people and town that we will be leaving behind.  Thank goodness for social media making the world a much smaller place!

Congratulations to all those who are graduating today, wherever you are!  You made it, you earned it, and you deserve it!