Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Great Places

Three days until I leave Tuscaloosa for Washington, DC for the summer.  I'm done with all of my 2L exams, and all I have left to do are the finishing touches on a seminar paper on health care liability.  I am beyond excited.

My little sister graduates from high school this weekend, and last weekend my parents had a graduation party for her.  Her principal came and his gift to her was my the most original and thoughtful graduation present I've ever seen.  He gave her a copy of the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go" and wrote something nice on the inside.




Here are the lines from the first page:

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

You're on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.




I think it's appropriate for anyone who's graduating right now or starting a new adventure. Congratulations, everyone.  You're off to Great Places.  

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it's ironic that you're getting paid to be a copy editor and you don't even edit your own work - "Her principal came and his gift to her was my the most original". Come on, a quick re-read would fix basic errors like that.

As to the content, The places You'll Go, by Seuss has to be one of the most common graduation themes / gifts / speeches used. It's always in some commencement speakers' address or in the newspaper with an article about this year's graduates. Nice, sure, but original, not at all. I'm surprised you'd think so.

Anonymous said...

Can't you just be happy for someone once in awhile, 9:10?

Anonymous said...

12:59,
I have to say that at first glance I rolled my eyes in the way I imagine 9:10 did. I mean, seriously. It's so popular it's a cliche to give that book.
Then I remembered -- I only think that because I'm about 15 years older than SEN and have been through all this so many times before.
So you're both right. Some of us just need to remind ourselves that some things used to be new to us, too.

Anonymous said...

SEN,

Your sister is just graduating from high school?? I thought she was older. We were all lusting after her in that photo with the Alabama QB, and it turns out she was probably younger than age 18 at the time of the photo?

Jailbait. Nice.

H.H. said...

Shaz,

Don't you remember Mrs. Brown reading to us from that book Senior year before graduation?

H

Anonymous said...

I'm a year older than SEN and I rolled my eyes.

Grace Nichols said...

I AM Sharon's little sister and I cried when I opened this gift; not because the book moved me, but because it was thoughtful. The inscription conveyed a genuine message of faith in the new generation of young people from a well educated mentor of mine. I do not think that the book was a "cliche" gift at all and I'm sure anyone would be happy to receive something like that from Sharon.

10:08- Quit creepin on me.