Chapmanesque—Circles are Round
(Photo creds 100% go to Charles King.)
It’s graduation season. From preschool to middle school to high school to college and post-graduate programs, the hard work for many will be celebrated with pomp and circumstance (literally).
There will be crowning moments with families celebrating that kid who struggled, that kid who fought the odds, that kid who made it across that finish line as the first to do so.
There will be other crowning moments with families celebrating another generation of success at certain academic institutions, adding to the already deep legacy of greatness established a long time ago.
There will be those who finished thanks to the dogged tenacity of a parent, the dogged tenacity of a mentor or the dogged tenacity of oneself.
Some are reaching a milestone without those who helped them in the beginning.
Some have rocketed towards greatness while others took a long a winding road.
The end of one chapter will have its full-stop, and the start of a new chapter will begin with a new word.
I’ve talked before about how those who’ve reached this point may see it as a finish line, but in reality, it’s only the beginning.
The Start of the Circle
In my 41st year on earth, my 23rd year after high school and my 19th year after college, I’ve discovered that there’s not much difference between the Friday of graduation and the next Monday—both days are work days.
The crazy thing about a circle is that there’s no beginning and no end. But that’s not entirely true. Sure, it’s true once the circle is completed, but the circle had to start at some point.
In that initial moment of the circle’s life, there was a starting point and a connecting point.
Once the circle was made complete, then it changed from an incomplete circle to a continuous circle. It shifted from incomplete to forever cyclical.
The circle only gets to be started once.
Relax, man
Again, the breaking of the tape at the end of the original race has been covered. When one race is over, it doesn’t serve a runner well to dwell on the past. Sure, you can examine it, learn from it, heck even make some lifestyle changes because of it.
But dwelling on what has been doesn’t allow you to move on to what could be or what currently, actually is.
For those of us who’ve made our way around the circle a few times, we’ve been gifted with perspective. We have a large enough sample size to know that we’ve probably had our worst go’round already and our best go’round is always somewhere in the future.
We know that since there’s no real beginning to the circle and no end to the circle, we can create for ourselves check points that allow us to take a minute to look introspectively, allowing us to regroup if needed.
The only way to get that sort of perspective is to keep going around the circle. The more revolutions we experience, the more we get.
The more trips around the ring we have, the more we realize how right John Milton was when he said, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of. heav’n.”
The Wheel Keeps Turnin’
What do we actually get each time we pass Go?
I’ve already mentioned perspective. Sometimes we’re the windshield, and sometimes we’re the bug. In either situation, we have to keep going.
The greater number of laps we accumulate the greater our inheritance is. We get to come into contact with different people, unique people, joyful people, miserable people, poisonous people, encouraging people. We gain from each person something that helps us along our journey. From each we absorb something that helps externally shape who we are. These external influences batter our hulls and bolster our resolve. The goal is to be galvanized to better weather the storms that come our way.
More trips equal more lessons. One of the lessons I’ve learned in my own life is not to make a semi-permanent decision that can affect a future trip around the circle at the culmination of one of those trips. Your mental capacity to handle situations is very different when you have a full tank of fuel versus when it’s time to stop and refuel.
Another lesson: You’re allowed to start over whenever you want. It’s a circle, remember? There’s no real beginning and no real end. So, if that’s the case, and you’re in need of something new, then start over.
But the other side of that coin has some truths as well. When it’s time to start your new project, leave the old ones behind. In my professional life, I work in education. When a new school year presents itself, I can’t go back and change what happened in a previous school year. They stack up, you see, so unless you want to get backed up like Lucy and Ethel did at the Chocolate Factory, you’ve got to focus on what’s next.
Ride that Train
To those graduates out there who have reached that culmination, I cannot be more thrilled for you.
You’ve proven to yourself you have what it takes. Don’t stop. Keep going.
To the rest of us who ride that train each week, keep looking forward.
Try new things. Take new risks. Learn from where you mess up and make the adjustment next time.
Remember, the best is always ahead of us. We have to believe that. It’s what makes each day a new adventure.
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