the valedictorian was telling them right
now. About the exciting future that lies ahead. I wish
she'd tell them the truth: Half of you have gone as far in
life as you're ever going to. Look around. It's all
downhill from here. The rest of us will go a bit further, a
steady job, a trip to Hawaii, or a move to Phoenix, Arizona,
but out of fifteen hundred how many will do anything truly
worthwhile, write a play, paint a painting that will hang in a
gallery, find a cure for herpes? Two of us, maybe three? And
how many will find true love? About the same. And
enlightenment? Maybe one. The rest of us will make compromises,
find excuses, someone or something to blame, and hold that over
our hearts like a pendant on a chain.