The 2023 Graduate

As we enter into a new month, many of us know of at least one, two or more graduates. Whether graduating from college, high school, middle school, or kindergarten, it’s a time to celebrate achievement.

However, it’s not just kids and young adults in the graduation spotlight. May transitions to June. Spring transitions to Summer. Pleasant, cool mornings transition to a 7AM blast furnace…. well, at least it does where I live.

Before the celebrations begin, though, let’s take a deeper dive into the meaning of a graduate. Let’s start with the word itself. “Graduate” comes from a 15th century Old Latin word, gradus, that means “a step climbed, as on a ladder or stair.” It denotes movement, but only movement that is either upward or forward. You don’t move side-to-side on a ladder or a stairway. And, while you can climb down a ladder or staircase, the word that denotes such movement adds a “de” in front of it. In other words, going down or backwards would be steps of degradation.

“Gradus” also means degree. I’m not talking about the piece of paper you get when you walk across a stage in a cap & gown that allows you to place some random letters at the end of your name on a business card. Like the word “step,” this word “degree” denotes movement. A circle contains 360-degrees, and each degree is a step away from the 1st degree.

The Latin word gradus was also defined as “a degree of something rising by stages.” In other words, we again see the connotation of movement that is onward and upward.

I think it’s also important to emphasize the fact that a step or a degree moved isn’t bound by the necessity of being done in 4-year increments. Yes, by all means, we need to be very proud --and vocal of that pride -- in those individuals who have successfully completed X-number of years of training and education. They have achieved something that could only be earned with dedication, time, toil, blood, sweat, and tears! Celebrate them!

Yet, we should equally celebrate those who transition from one day to the next, which if you think about it, is every one of us. Every morning is a new chapter. A new beginning. A new step. Will you be a graduate, and make sure those steps take you onward and upward? Or will you instead use the day to move side-to-side, never accomplishing anything, never making progress? Or, worse, move backwards… downward… sinking into degradation?

Every day that you wake up with breath in your lungs, every morning if you find yourself without 6 feet of dirt on top of you, it’s a gift. Use it to show all those who are around you, and those with whom you interact throughout the day just why you are a celebrated graduate with a specialized degree in humanity.