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I was driving my son home from his High School graduation, a very proud night for him. One of his friends was with him. My son mentioned that 5 people did not show up. One was supposed to be next to him in line.
His friend quipped"Who would skip their high school graduation?"
Answer: ME !! I did and I am proud of it !
Of course, I did not tell him this because I did not want to encourage him to be like me, in that respect, also because we had some relatives in town.
Back a few decades
High school was the worse time of my life. (up until then, with the exception of Sundays)
My dad got a promotion and we had to move to another city, from small town to big city . We arrived at our new house the weekend before school started. It was my Junior year, and I found out that the high school I would be attending did not like transfer students or new people in general.
Add that to the stress of a move which was already affecting our family, my dad's paranoia nis personality disorder, my parents involvement in a religious cult, etc etc
High school did not work out for me. I had no friends, no involvement and no one from the teachers to the counselors to the parents seemed to care. I was very depressed and not doing well. I tried to talk to my mom about being depressed, that was a big mistake. her answer: She screamed at the top of her lungs:"Well You better snap out of it!"
When my last semester came around I was told that I would not have enough credits to graduate. It seems that some of the classes I took at my old high school would not count. Now these schools were in the same state, and both accredited and approved by the state board, but in my cases that did not seem to matter. I was told that I would need 3 classes, I could do one in summer and two via correspondence, which I did.
At the end of the summer, there was a token graduation ceremony for the 12 students who were graduating late (Or early) and I stayed home. Did not even pick up the diploma the next week. I think my parents knew how angry and disappointed I was. I think that they were the only two people in the world who cared if I went or not. My dad tried to tell me "That is a once in a lifetime thing"
Certainly none of the students cared if I finished or not and for 2 years the staff did not seem to either.
I do understand Why people drop out of high school
To this day All I have is a transcript that says "The degree will be/was confirmed on such and such date" neither one was circled. The diploma has never been seen.
I went on to college anyway. And I actually attended one of the graduations at one of my degrees. Still sucked, boring, but at least a number of professors shook my hand on the way up and the way out. They worked with me to get me where I am today.
No thanks to high school, whose graduation I am still glad I skipped out on
High school was among the worst times in my life. I had pretty normal parents and family, but I had a major flaw as far as fellow students and teachers were concerned: I was academically gifted and wanted to learn. The school's basic premise was that most students would work in the cotton mill and that's all the education they needed. The very few who were college bound would have to get that on their own. It was a miserable four years.
But I did go to my graduation. It was like the punctuation mark that put a solid period, end, finished, I'm out of here to my high school years. Funny thing was, I absolutely loved college so I didn't go to my graduation for the same but opposite reason -- I didn't want to put the punctuation mark on my time there. Later on, when I finished grad school, I did go to that graduation and it felt right and normal. Neither an end, nor a beginning, but a transition.
I skipped my college and masters graduation too bad I also didn’t skip my HS graduation. Why do I need to sit in an auditorium for 2-4 hours to hear a bunch of academics ramble on about nothing and 2500 other students get their name called. In today’s selfie look at me culture it would be even worse.
Same here.
While I thoroughly enjoyed some high school subjects, I early on understood it was all controlled life for an adolescent with regimentation that stifled your life. Bailed early to go to work with my diploma. Never attended my college graduation either.
Some people are just not lemmings.
Jim
I too skipped HS graduation. My parents didn't mind and it's made no difference in my life.
Some people like ceremony and some don't. That about sums it up. Some people are happy to get married wearing jeans at the JP's office. Some want to go all out.
At base graduation is for the parents and not the kid. The graduate has met all the requirements and walking across a stage is not one of them.
Reality is that high school graduation is one of those markers we use to indicate moving into adulthood. Getting a driver's license is another (and I know some of you will get the vapors over me saying that).
I will tell y'all that one really good way to snap a soon to graduate senior out of dumbassery is to tell him he won't walk but will get his diploma across the Principal's desk.
Now, when I graduated in 1972 we were told that walking was a requirement. Was that true? Don't have a clue.
Some people like ceremony and some don't. That about sums it up. Some people are happy to get married wearing jeans at the JP's office. Some want to go all out.
Hi Katarina
I don;t know if it was required for my High School to attend a graduation, but some of the counselors seemed perturbed that I did not attend the end of summer token graduation ceremony. They said that unless I showed up in person, I would not get my diploma. That was probably the MOST attention they gave me in two years.
I guess after a few decades that diploma has long been placed in the garbage receptacle, which is about what I would have done with it had I picked it up.
But, I am not one who is into ceremony. My lovely wife and I eloped, choosing a quick wedding in another town that was accompanied only by ourselves and the JP who performed our wedding in a beautiful little park in between a few others that day. While there were people standing around watching, after all, it was a public park, and some of the people watching were waiting their turn to get hitched (one guy later told me for the 7th time) There was NO ceremony, just a quick vows and pronouncement. No Stress. No family, no friends.....we did not want any ceremony.
Same goes for other things in life...I do not do ceremonies, awards (even when I was supposedly going to get one). I reluctantly walked for my first college degree, mainly at my parents insistence, and after disappointing them by skipping the high school one I went along. And Hated it. I skipped the other two, including a masters and a post licensing party that someone in the school set up after we all passed boards.
Back when I was a theist, the churches would have a graduation Sunday and present awards and recognition to all the graduates. I skipped that too. In fact I warned them a month in advance that I would not be there, and that there would be no discussion. And there was not.
But I guess someone asked my mom where I was that Sunday and who knows how that set her off.....
I plan to retire from my medical/psychology group at the end of this year. I have a few new things to do, so it is not a true retirement. I will be working but not in that capacity. There will be no retirement party, no goodbye party. It will be just like anything else. one day I go to work, next week, I will be doing something else.
These supposed "rights of passage" are only fabrications and expectations of people who believe that they themselves need that. To me, they are only illusions, and as such, unnecessary.
I skipped my hs, my AS degree, and my BS degree graduations. I did, however, go to my MA graduation only because the University wouldn't let me have the cap and gown if I didn't.
Why skip graduation ceremonies? They are boring and meaningless to me and I'd rather be doing something else. I only wanted the degrees.
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