Dear graduating class of 2012:
As you are inundated with uninspiring graduation speeches and duplicate copies of Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” I would like to drop some serious knowledge on you. I am sure everyone around you is offering advice as to what comes after high school, how to pursue your goals and live the American Dream.
I want to focus on something many fail to discuss in these commencement ceremonies — I want you to live to see the end of summer and fall. I want you to survive.
You feel on top of the world, you’re invincible, the future is wide open andyour dreams are finally ready to be pursued. The stress of your senior year is behind you, the pressure has been lifted and you are ready to get on with your life. You have 90 days left to be a kid and have fun!
Many of you are planning and preparing for the move to college, choosing courses totake, deciding what to pack and how will you continue to date the person you are involved with, etc. Those who are staying here might be looking for full-time work or preparing for fall classes at UT, BGSU,Lourdes or Owens Community College.
The one thing all of you have in common is the excitement for the upcoming graduation party season. Which kids are going to have a family party versus a “cool” family party … you know, the one that will have a keg of beer and some booze. This is where my advice begins.
Every year, June brings fatal car accidents involving current or graduating high school kids. These accidents can happen anywhere and at any time, from rural areas to any suburb of Toledo. They are often the saddest of tragedies because a family goes from celebrating your tremendous future and hard work to planning your funeral.
In almost all of the cases they are completely avoidable if you simply listen to my words: Don’t drive drunk; don’t drive late at night; don’t drive distracted.
Those words are often over preached by known hypocrites such as teachers and guidance counselors and, sadly, fall on deaf ears. I know some to most of you are going to drink illegally and some of you are going to drive later at night than you have before.
I know some of you have checked your phone twice since you began to read this column, so I know you will probably be tweeting, texting, Facebooking, playing Words with Friends or Draw Something all while driving.
You are going to be stupid.
Put these together in any combination and factor in your inexperience with driving, and it spells the perfect formula for tragedy.
Here is how to stay alive, pursue your dreams and find out what life is
truly about.
If you are at a party late at night, juststay where you are; crash on a couch, grab some floor or have a parent/older sibling pick you up. Even if you have not had one sip of alcohol, the roads are filled with people who have, especially late at night.
Your parents may be furious at you for missing curfew, they will be pissed because maybe you had a drink, but if they are yelling at a live you, they are not crying over a dead you at the coroner’s office.
This seems dramatic because it is. I am talking Life and Death with you. I am not trying to be unrealistic. These words are coming from a man who celebrated with the best of them and was lucky to survive. I have seen enough grieving familiesin the month of June, I’ve been to enough funerals. I simply want you all to survive.
Congratulations and don’t be stupid. The world will be yours if you are smart enough to survive.
