My son Jonah is a week away from graduating. Thanks to the state’s College Credit Plus program, by the time he goes to Ohio State in the fall, he will be entering his junior year. He will be a political science major. He gets good grades, though not as good as he could earn if he fully applied himself. He also works nearly 30 hours a week at Sheetz, helps mow lawns for older individuals in our neighborhood and is generally good with little kids.
As he prepares to graduate, he has been given a lot of advice, some of it better than others. Some of you may remember the Baz Luhrmann song, “Advice to the Graduating Class of 1999: Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen” in which Baz offers advice to graduates. He leads by saying that “If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.”
He explains, “the long term benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.”
He then offers advice — some of it funny, some poignant, some of it relevant, some not.
Jonah, being my son, has a bit of a reluctance to take advice from others. He said there is some advice that upcoming graduates could offer.
As Luhrman says, “I will dispense this advice now.”
—
I am an 18 year old high school senior, and I graduate in a week. Boy is that a scary sentence to write.
As I prep to graduate, everyone and every publication feels entitled to give me advice.
Boston College wants me to say ‘Thank you.’
I was told to “Mutt it up” from Over the Mountain Journal. I am not certain I know what that advice means or what qualifies this publication to offer it.
Baz Luhrmann says to “Wear Sunscreen.”
And to be completely frank, not all of this advice is welcomed or appreciated. So in the spirit of unsolicited advice, I thought I’d offer some from the class of 2024.
For starters, stop putting “google.com” in the search bar on top of the screen. You don’t need to. That bar is the Google. Furthermore, you don’t need to say “Please” and “Thank you” to Google or Siri or Alexa. I don’t think they really appreciate it. Instead, tell a cashier or a waitress or your mom. They deserve it and really will appreciate it.
Listen to and forgive others. Even at my young age, I had my fair share of relationships broken over the dumbest things. I’ve seen plenty of relationships between others broken too. So many of these broken relationships could be avoided by listening to others or by being able to put our pride aside and forgive. It’s never easy. In fact, it’s incredibly hard and, even at 18, gets more difficult the older I get. But then again, so does living with the pain of broken relationships.
A common piece of advice given to younger people is “Don’t stress so much.” However, every one of you is stressful — and I mean, so stressful. Stop being so stressful, and maybe, just maybe, we won’t stress so much.
Try new things, especially if you are convinced ahead of time you won’t like them.
Keep up on new music. It will ensure you always have something to talk to your kids about, even when you don’t know what to talk about.
Slow down when driving! (That’s my dad’s advice to me)
Smell the roses.
Sometimes, the extra $10 is worth it.
Do your laundry. (That one’s from my mom)
Buy name brand batteries.
My final piece of advice is to have fun, never stop enjoying life. While working and having a family are important, the happiest people I know equally emphasize going out of your way to have fun. Have fun with friends, have fun with your family, have fun with yourself; anything so long as you’re having fun. Life is short, why make it miserable too?
Oh yeah, and trust Baz on the sunscreen.
-Mac Cordell is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.