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  I know you seniors have given up already. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Okay. I got it. In less than two weeks you'll all be in your seats sweating in your dopey polyester gowns barely listening to boring-ass speakers (EXCEPT of course for Jan!!!), have more pictures taken of you than Brittany getting out of a limo--and then after all the pomp and circumstance, you will be proclaimed: Graduated. You will stare at that piece of paper and say, "Now what?" Well buddy boys, your new life beckons. You are about to begin a very cool spelunking expedition into one dark, mutha-f'n cave of intense mystery. Some suggestions on what to bring: a pocket lighter (believe me, no torch is big enough, so even a little light will help), good climbing shoes, your favorite book, Ramen noodles, phone numbers of old friends when you hit a dank dead end (but make sure you have new numbers in your cell as well), a stupid-funny DVD and a photograph of yourself from 2008 to remember yourself as you go deeper and deeper into the mystery. Oh yeah...pack a sense of humor and PERSPECTIVE when things get really rough and scary. There I was, 17-years-old, three days after my graduation, in a car with my friends Paul and Emer (yeah, an odd girl's name--it's Celtic) pointed west on Route 50 in Arlington, Virginia not far from the Atlantic Ocean. Having never in my life gone in the direction of the setting sun I was bursting with desire to see what was out there. I had read a couple of books and seen a couple of films and, naturally thinking I was much smarter than I really was, gathered the fortitude (arrogance?) to say goodbye to my old life and enter the cave. My parents, God bless 'em, knew they couldn't stop me and didn't try.  I knew I wanted to enjoy freedom and adventure and new experiences before I was a "proper" adult. In the final line of HUCK FINN, our hero remarks, "But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before." So Paul, Emer and I lit out. We let this wonderful country yawn before us on its fabulous blue highways. In Nashville we hit up The Grand Old Opry; in Memphis, the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. On the great plains of Texas is the enigmatic folk art Cadillac Ranch...in Arizona you see the Grand Canyon for the first time and you just giggle in stooopid amazement. Rolling into the blinding lights of Las Vegas at two in the morning dazzled me (and I swear, to this day, I thank God that I didn't marry Emer there like we were planning on a lark. If you knew Emer, you'd definitely understand!).      Then it was onto I-10 through downtown LA and straight on to Santa Monica where we parked, walked on the sand and stared at the fabled Pacific Ocean for like four hours.    In LA. we ended up staying at this very cheap place on Sunset Blvd that seemed to have a lot of "character". It turned out to be a prostitute motel (hello Holden Caulfield!). Of course we thought the whole scene was hilarious. Took in a Tim Curry concert at the Roxy, went hiking in the Hollywood Hills, got lost in Boyle Heights, got REALLY lost in Mexico, Emer played tennis in a court next to Warren Beatty at the Beverly Hills Hotel (no sleazy whore house for her any more!) and we slept in the car somewhere off the 5 Freeway. We then drove up to San Francisco, ran around there, and then decided to visit some old friends who had moved to Sacramento. In my junior high in Virginia, I went to school with the kids of a NASA Apollo astronaut. It was kinda cool having these "celebrity" kids in the school and they were super nice too. When we got to Sacramento, we found out from their Mom that the kids had all went with their dad hiking in Yosemite. So, off we went to find them. Now for the rest of this story, you gotta remember this was a very different time than it is now. VERY DIFFERENT. Our friend, Ellen S. was working as a camp ranger in Yosemite and we found her easy enough. She knew the area where her Dad and the other three kids were camping so we went hiking down the trails to surprise them (remember this was the ancient days before cell phones!). A day later, it was a very happy reunion in this gorgeous valley where they set up camp. For the rest of that day. Paul, Emer and I caught up with our friends and later, we all threw off our clothes and went skinny dipping in a very cold, crystal clear lake. Later, their father who had let all of us alone all day to catch up and swim (boy, THAT wouldda been embarrassin' if he was there!), joined us for a campfire dinner. The stars in Yosemite were breathtaking and the entire Milky Way was on glorious display above us. Amazingly enough, this astronaut, who had circled the Earth and the Moon, took out a joint and began smoking it. It was funny because his kids didn't even bat an eye. The astronaut then proceeded to talk about the sky, the stars, his experience in space, and his thoughts on the universe and all of us listened in rapt attention. It truly was extraordinary being alive that night experiencing it all.    I learned that different ways of living, of seeing, of being were all possible. We are NOT stuck on any particular path or any particular way of experiencing what it is to be human. We live. We change. We mutate. We take in. We give out. What we were yesterday is not destined to be who we become tomorrow. It was pure bliss running around like Aborigines in Yosemite for a few more days. Since I had to prepare to go to college, the time came for me to return home to my "old life". But I knew this trip across country had changed me forever. We bombed eastward across interstates. (Actually we went too fast--Paul crashed the car into the back of a Buick in Ohio and your humble narrator smashed his head into the windshield. I survived but it was an important lesson to be MORE cautious and that I wasn't completely invincible.) Later that August, I said goodbye to my old high school friends who were going off to strange new futures of their own. Now you have that diploma, don't even look back on it. That's the past. Keep looking ahead.  Perhaps keep in mind the wonderful realization found in Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'”Seniors, enjoy the countdown, have a groovy Awards Night, enjoy your celebrity for the next few days. Then go on down into that cave and don't be afraid. You will be changed by what you discover and you will be a much more interesting human being because of it.  Post a comment in response: |
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