The Feeling of Moving On.
It’s the eighth grade again. You’re 13 years old and everything is about to change. You were top dog at school for a whole year and now you are moving on to high school.
You’re a senior in high school; some of the same feelings are there, but instead of moving on to the next grade you are headed out to what the adults in your life keep calling the “real world”.
I think a lot about these sorts of things. This morning I will speak to the 8th grade class at Briggs Middle School in Springfield. We will talk about what was, what is and what is to come, as if we really know.
The other reason I think about this so much is my son Jess graduating from high school. I watch as things begin to slowly change and he must learn to navigate in a world that is somewhat different than the security of a school schedule and assignments.
For my oldest Jake, he’s on the edge of change and can’t quite break free or break into the person he is intended to be. But it’s coming. For him I think waiting, exploring and searching can be so frustrating. The journey tends to be like that for a lot of us.
I guess I feel the same way in a lot of respects. Leaving my job and taking on this “new world” has had its ups and downs.
Life has a way of forcing us to change. As humans we say change is good. Marketers are always trying to get us to buy something new to help us change our lives. But when it all comes down to it change is not something many of us look forward to. Change can be hard. Change means leaving the people, hallways and boundaries we used to know for the wide-open space that is sometimes difficult to fill.
I will tell the graduates at Briggs today not to be afraid of risk, to walk into change, and not to allow anyone to put them in a box. Some will understand for others it will take some time.
For my two sons, I will give them space, hopefully ask the right questions, and maybe have a few answers they will actually be able to use as change creeps up on them.
And for myself, I will try to remember the change I experienced leaving the 8th grade, high school and my last career. Once you get through it, you can look back and see the value. But this morning I can’t quite get that feeling out of my gut. The feeling of Moving on.
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Comments ( 2 )
Janet Lovelace added these pithy words on Jun 12 08 at 9:23 pmRick,
I enjoyed your talk to the Briggs Middle School 8th graders today.
That “moving on” feeling is something we all get to (or have to) experience
throughout our lives here on this earth. Some situations we do accept more
willingly than others, but in fact, life is about moving forward.
Alot of us resist moving forward out of fear, the uncertainty of what tomorrow holds for us. But I have found that resisting is futile, and that in allowing myself that freedom to just “give in to it”, I open myself to all sorts of new discoveries about myself and about the new people God places in my life because of it.
Thanks for reminding me today to keep moving forward, that there is so much to learn and experience every day.
I sure hope that at least, just a few of those 8th graders really heard your message today. Just a few to truly believe that they are and can be real contributors to this life.
Todd Lutz added these pithy words on Jun 13 08 at 9:55 pmRick,
My son graduated from Briggs MS yesterday and I enjoyed your presentation immensely. I have to admit that my son probably did not get “it”, but I sure did.
I’ve worked in higher education for my entire career and sometimes wonder if it isn’t time to move on to something more lucrative. And then I attend a graduation ceremony or listen to a student telling how their college experiences have changed their life and that feeling goes away pretty quickly.
I’ve emailed your post to my sons (we had a Springfield High graduate this year as well) and hope they may catch a part of the message if it’s in a medium that they respond to. I suppose it’s too long to text it to their cell phones…
Again, thanks for all the time you’ve put in at Briggs. Best of luck in the campaign, as a transplant from Arizona I haven’t payed much attention to Oregon politics yet. I hope that the state realizes that they have someone like you to choose from.
Welcome to Rickdancer.com. I’m a guy who loves to write, enjoys communicating with people, gets a kick out of other people’s ideas and encourages everyone to get involved in the conversation. For 23 years I worked as a Television News Journalist in Eugene, Oregon. I recently lost a race for Oregon Secretary of State and am now at a point in my life where I’m waiting on God to see what’s next. I invite you to join me on this journey to freedom. You can simply read the blog, we have created a place for you to 
