'Tis the season

After hundred of years of graduations, you would think society could find a way to actually honor and celebrate graduates, instead of the methodical snooze fest we call commencement. Most of these ceremonies are nothing more than glorified glamour pageants for a few students who allegedly worked harder than everyone else. They get the time on the stage, the awards, and the medals. Everybody else sits in the back and claps politely, no matter how hard they worked. Usually we are also forced to listen to some dreadfully boring and repetitive speech by said 'overachievers'. Let me see if I can start one:

"We made it! Some of us never thought we would get here, but at last we are at the end. Through pain, perseverance, and toil we did it together, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

Insert a few cliches here and throw in a cute pop culture reference there and mix it together for the generic graduation speech. Make sure to include plenty of homages to a spectacular future. Everybody follows this formula. The valedictorian, the principal, and the student body president include slightly different wrapping to fool the audience into thinking they are in some way unique. 

Please, please, please I beg for some innovation! How can we flip this drudgery of a ceremony? Who actually enjoys attending these things? Especially as we only showcase a few students who conform to some outdated notion of school. Hey, if you can read and write well and pass some standardized test, way to go! If you can fix cars, paint, or play in the band, but get "C's", sit in the back! Change up the format of graduation. There is so much potential and we ruthlessly make it as mundane as possible.

BTW way to go cuz, I am so proud of you!