Graduates, Attack the Future Like a Snail

It is not unusual for a cat or dog to “adopt” a home, but how about a snail?
Recently, one determined snail has seemingly adopted the west wall of our house. It goes up so far, and the next morning, it’s down on the deck again. Next day, it does the same thing.
Having no luxury of studying such things at a higher level, let’s just chalk its appearance up to a lesson from Nature. Never quit, keep on going.
Throughout Cape May County, most high schools are preparing for commencement ceremonies. Graduations are later than planned, because of blizzards in February, but after 13 years of education, what are a few days in June?
If I were a speaker at one of those commencement events, where I doubt graduate remembers even a sentence from what the featured speaker talks about, I would dedicate the speech to that snail.
I would tell the teens in caps and gowns that they, like that snail, when began their educational journeys in 1997, they took one day at a time. They were taught, not only in school, but at home and in their neighborhood. At a snail’s pace, they embraced little bits and pieces of their surroundings.
Soon, they became more acquainted with this ever-changing world in which they are about to embark, some to college, others to the military, perhaps to a technical school, or just into the world of employment. To be certain, this is a different world than that of even 1997. We know more, seem to care less, and are better connected, yet are still light years apart from each other.
Those graduates fortunate enough to have been guided by loving parents on their snail-paced journeys to adulthood have at least a rudimentary set of values and goals. It becomes their daily job now to put those goals and values into play.
They may face ethical decisions that will affect them and others around them. I hope that they will have strong enough value “anchors” to guide them so that they will not stray from what is good.
Some, no doubt, cannot wait to leave Cape May County and the Garden State. That is unfortunate, but it is a sad fact. There is little in the way of good, solid jobs with futures for many young people in this peninsula so blessed by Nature.
Others will remain to labor at tasks that need doing. A scattered few may roam the world, then come back here with a diploma and plan for their future. It is always interesting to listen to those who attend their class reunions, and hear the things that peers have accomplished, where they have gone, what they have done.
Oddly, the same groups will gather at reunions, and nothing will have changed except color of hair and size of waistlines and some names.
This year’s graduates will have a daunting task when it comes to finding a place to live on their own, unless they are endowed with a pot of gold to put down for a house payment. Young families struggle to find suitable, or affordable housing here, and little is ever done to correct that sad fact.
When apartments were proposed to house such families, communities arose in opposition, so working families trudge along, finding places they can afford, and wondering what the future holds in store.
Those graduates, too, may be smart, heed the winds of change, and seek out more affordable regions of the nation in which to live. Surely, the tax burden in this county and state is oppressive, and not conducive to retaining young workers who want to marry and raise a family.
Still, like that snail outside the kitchen window, they will move along, hoping and striving, and not being discouraged when the going gets rough. That’s why is so important that those graduates have goals, without them, they will wind up back in the woods, banging into trees or worse.
What will the future bring to us? Who will someday sit at the keyboards here at the Herald to keep the 100,000 or so county residents informed about happenings in and around the cape? Who will wear the uniforms of police officers? Who will defend and prosecute those who transgress the law? Who will prepare our prescriptions and cut our meat, repair our vehicles and drill cavities in our teeth?
Who will lead us in prayer, be present to baptize our young, marry men and women, and bury our departed? Who will prepare budgets that will take our taxes and run for office to carry out the mandates of society?
The answer to those questions reposes with the young men and women who sit in rows attired in caps and gowns. This will be their world for better or worse. We have laid the foundation, the groundwork for them, now, and in a few short years, it will be up to them to continue the work into the future.
Such things happen at a seeming snail’s pace, so I tip my hat to that determined snail for going and not quitting even when the wall is straight up 90 degrees.