This weekend I went back to my old high school to hand out an award at their graduation ceremony (yes, it weirdly takes place in November). As a part of the proceedings I got to spend some time with the young man who was receiving the award and he shared a little bit with me about how torn he was about his chosen major. I wanted to tell him to relax; your major is not your future, even if it seems it is.
That made me feel old and wise, at least for about ten minutes. Hey, I’ll take it. I was already pondering my lack of Pulitzer, which I’d hoped to achieve before returning to my high school’s stage.
However - if there’s one thing I’ve absorbed in my position as More.ca’s web editor, it’s that reinvention is something we do over and over, and especially at midlife. Sometimes we do it because we want to, as Sylvie Rochette did when she turned her hobby into a business, and sometimes, as Lisa Fitterman explores in her piece Cheryl goes to the bank, we end up forced into a hiatus or a change by circumstances beyond our control.
But there’s no way to tell someone entering university not to take his courses too seriously, and besides: If it were my kid, I’d want him to be sweating out his choices with gravity and attention, especially during that first university year when you can switch majors more easily. So I refrained from advice-giving altogether. (Even if all throughout the ceremony I was awfully tempted to see if I could plug my iPod copy of Baz Lurmann’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) into the speakers.) He’s young, smart, and officially award-winning. He’ll figure it out, at least to the extent anyone can.
This zen moment aside, here are some things-to-know from around the ‘net this Monday:
- Are you stopping your teen from growing up? (Globe and Mail)
- When the marriage ends before the renovation (go to Egypt?) (New York Times)
- Low levels of cholesterol may not be a great thing (National Post)
Share your advice or links to stories you’re reading in the comments!
