Congratulations to my nephew Jake on his graduation today. This is Jake, or rather, one of the Jake's I've known over the past eighteen years. With all of the moving we've done over the years my memories of Jake are somewhat stuttered. I remember the first few years when he was this crazy little bouncing atomic nucleus that I babysat and made up stories for. Time passes and the kid is a talking, running, wise-cracking eight year old with a little sister.
There were a few years when our family gathered in Wyoming regularly and it didn't seem like Jake or any of the other kids were changing all that much. But then, after missing a couple of those get-togethers, I visit and my little nephew Jake is a full size, contemplative, introspective, morose teenager. Or at least I think he is, most of the time he's in his room playing video games.
Jake stayed with us last summer and I had a great time. For all the fun the little baby Jake was he didn't have the conversational skills and perspectives that today's graduating Jake has. We hiked the White Mountains, attended Mac World, rebuilt his PC a couple of times, drove across the US, and, yeah, played a few video games.
Perched atop my accumulated years I was thinking that there might be some words of wisdom I could pass down to Jake today. While digging through boxes of old photos to find snapshots of Jake I kept running across photos of my own graduation. It must have been a bad year for film as they have all faded a shade of red. There's younger versions of everyone and the youngest seems to be me. I don't look as grown up as Jake does now and certainly had no idea what I was doing.
That's when I realized that given some time-travel or astral-projection capability I wouldn't know what to tell my own graduating self, even fully knowing how many stupid and destructive things lie ahead. So forget it, you are on your own Jake. No crib notes from me. And that's a good thing. I think it would suck to live by someone else's reminisces. Especially when you still have that little bouncing atomic nucleus Jake somewhere inside.
Have a great graduation, Jake!
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Well put! I didn't find him morose at all!
But I do have one piece of advice.
Just keep going. No matter how you feel, no matter what is happening, no matter anything. Guilt is only good to let you know that you did something wrong. Acknowlege it, make repairs where you can, let it go and keep going. Satisfaction is also good to let you know you did a great job. Acknowlege it, savor it for a short time, and keep going! I've found this to be extremely difficult to do.
We love you Jake!
Love,
Aunt Faith
Besides having the worl's coolest uncle, Jake had a fantastic gradudation. His little sister got a monster bloody nose and we all made fun of her, and moved to seats further away, being such a compassionate, caring family. Chelsea and I cried, of course. All in all, it was a very successful day. Jake, we are proud of you and love ou very much.
That's my google-eyed kid!