Lauren Jenkins: Responsibilities, honors await

Graduation. This is a day that every middle school student claims is a day of freedom; a day on which the ultimate goal is reached: salvation from the restricting embrace of parents.

Graduation remains the same liberating event all the way up until senior year, when it changes to something else. The event itself does not change; the same class is going to put on potato sack robes, march to the front of the gymnasium, grab a rolled sheet of paper, shake a few hands, and sit down again.

But that class may be a few members short. It may have a few more members. The class may have collectively grown in height and changed its appearance. These physical differences are not the gravest matter of the day, however, because graduation changes in another way when one becomes a senior: It is no longer a day of emancipation, but a day of honor and a day of responsibility.

With graduation day comes the realization that mom and dad are no longer going to be there for every waking moment. For many, this realization comes in the form of moving away for college. For others, it comes in the form of a job that is used to pay for things parents once covered.

Graduation becomes the first frightening glance at the increased responsibilities of life. It becomes a day that exposes students to the choices that must be made, and a day on which one is recognized for the achievements that one has accomplished, yet a day on which all the new responsibilities of adulthood are revealed.

Graduation is a time of reflection on past accomplishments and actions, and a time to look forward, hoping to fix one’s mistakes and replicate one’s triumphs. Graduation is much more than emancipation; it is a renaissance of decision.