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Since when did we start taking ourselves so seriously? While highschool graduation is a momentous occasion and a coming of age - it is not a sacred ritual. It is a time to celebrate the vitality of youth, and the hope they bring to future generations. For many students, making it to high school graduation was a battle against all odds. They may have been the first generation in a family to make it this far, they may have battled the tortures of bullying, or they may simply have been one of the many children passed through the system while struggling with a learning disability. As they walk across the stage, their family and friends are bursting with pride. It bubbles over into shouts and applause for a moment. This is now a crime, punishable by community service.

Dignity does not mean sitting on your hands and letting a whole generation of students walk across a stage in silence. Each student should be celebrated individually, even if it means the ceremony is long. Dignity is respecting what the student has done and applauding them. It means supporting them in their future endevours.

At my university convocation, where I graduated with new doctors, and other health care professionals, there was ample hooting and hollering. I applauded each student that walked across the stage (there were several hundred). Students brought signs on stage to thank their parents, they took time to hug the dean, or do a happy dance across the stage. It was not a problem. It made it the fun, joyous occasion that it is meant to be.

We push our children to grow up too fast as it is. It is time for people to lighten up and celebrate graduation as joyfully as they can. For soon, it will be a faded memory talked about at a highschool reunion. And who wants to remember boring silence?

Learn more about this author, Jessica Callele.
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