"It's called commencement for a reason."

This year, in my senior baby ad, my father told me that "graduation was called commencement for a reason." Seeing as how he had to fit the message in a tiny square, he didn't really elaborate on the reason..and I feel like he maybe wanted me to interpret it my own way anyways.

Today I was driving down the road, and passed a few of my classmates' houses and cars. It made me think of tomorrow, my graduation day, as a new beginning. No longer will we be settled into the same 8 hour day in our institutionalized setting, no longer will we be going to athletic practices with our friends. We are, as my dad said, commencing tomorrow. And it still feels unreal. Tomorrow, some of us go on to get married over the summer. Some of us will be shipped off to college, or shipped off to war. Some of us will stay here forever, and some of us will never be coming back.

Tomorrow is the day we have all waited for, for 13 years. This time, when school lets out, it's out. It's time for us to commence into the rest of our lives. As for me, I feel the best is still yet to come.