For all 2014 Kauai graduates, the tassels on their mortar board caps have crossed over, school tests and deadlines for term papers are a thing of the past and their futures have just begun. The pressure is on now for
For all 2014 Kauai graduates, the tassels on their mortar board caps have crossed over, school tests and deadlines for term papers are a thing of the past and their futures have just begun. The pressure is on now for many of them who wonder, what next? Will they fit in at the college they plan to attend? Will they find a job on the island? What is expected of them? The pressures of earning good grades is replaced with the pressures of what they want to be when they “grow up.”
Recently, when I moved from Los Angeles to Kauai, I was rooting through my boxes of memorabilia when my husband yelled out in the background, “throw it all out.”
He was no doubt feeling the need to purge everything and start a new with a simple lifestyle on Kauai. Or at the very least, a closet that wasn’t going to be piled high with what he considered to be useless stuff. I came across my graduation tassel and became sentimental. It was tucked away inside my green, leather-bound diploma. I couldn’t part with either one. Although, for a second, I considered trying to sell it on eBay.
The tassel represented a benchmark in my life. A life filled with a series of new beginnings. Each time I move to a new city, change jobs, change husbands (wait a minute, I’m still on my first one!), I realize it’s like graduation day all over. I relish that evolution.
And now I become philosophical, thinking about how this year, graduation coincided with Memorial Day weekend and I realize that it isn’t a coincidence I’ve had the freedom to live an adventurous and fulfilling life because of the veterans who have preserved our freedom with every battle they fought, every terrorist threat they stalled out, every sacrifice their families made. I can’t help feeling a little guilty for not serving my country. My father did, my grandfather did, my brother and brother-in-law did, and now my nephew is serving our country. In hindsight, I wish I would have. Unfortunately, the idea never crossed my mind. Career counselors at Edina-East High School weren’t promoting the military, they promoted college.
I began my studies at the University of Minnesota as a music major. I marched in the band at the Gopher football games. I went on to work for an NBC-TV affiliate, reporting on medical, criminal and educational stories in Rochester, Minn. Those were choices I made, each one shaping another chapter in my life.
And that is what I hope for Kauai’s graduating seniors. Go forth with the wisdom and courage to try new things. I did. Some were a bit crazy, like the time I was a Christmas tree fluffer. Yes! that was my official job title. I was paid to travel around southern California fluffing up the branches of artificial trees in department stores. Or how about the time I was employed at Disneyland in Anaheim as a “face character,” signing autographs and posing for photo ops with children (yes, I was Fairy Godmother and Mrs. Claus)? Fun but painful to keep up appearances when cheek muscles got tired from smiling and my wig would begin to wilt. Or how about the time I was paid to wear gorgeous angel wings and promote Philadelphia Cream Cheese in grocery stores? I probably ate more of it than the store sold, if I remember right.
Without the freedom preserved by our veterans, I couldn’t have experienced any of those chapters of my life. Maybe I’ll continue to march to the beat of my own drum and play a John Phillip Sousa song on my flute in a tribute to the veterans. The sound will most likely annoy my neighbors. I’ll draw the line there, but I might consider dangling my fraying graduation tassel from my rear view mirror. A timely reminder of the power of education in our lives and the value of freedom I’m hoping our graduates will be able to embrace and appreciate.
• Lisa Ann Capozzi, features and education reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or lcapozzi@thegardenisland.com.
