2020 Grads, Opening and Closing Doors

We understand a lot more about doors now, don’t we? As business owners and community leaders, each of us are like the 2020 high school graduates, stepping into a bold new world. We are looking at new beginnings and re-openings and hoping for a bright future.

What message do we have for the 2020grads? Look forward. In keeping our eyes on the prize, we resolutelyrefuse to dwell on the past. We don’t forget the lessons learned, but we focuson the future. Set goals. Set heroic goals and be ready to slay them! Theindomitable spirit of our forefathers lives within each of us, and we can recoupour losses.

Keep an eye on the weather. Sometimes a shower is forecast on the day of the picnic and contingency plans ensure the activity will take place despite the storms of life. We’ve been through a storm, haven’t we? But we know what it takes to manage: Keep masks on hand. Sanitize. Encourage social distancing. The TechTarget Network offers food for thought on how to plan for the unexpected. Expect good days as well as bad days, and you won’t be caught unaware.

Expect a few ROUSes. Knowingthere is risk is part of life, and part of a successful life. As we moveinto this post-pandemic world, there will be some outbreaks. Did you ever watchthe Princess Bride? As they prepared to enter the fire swamp, Wesleylists the known dangers and knows exactly how to maneuver through them. It’spart experience and part bravado, but that’s life, isn’t it? There is so muchwe don’t know about this novel virus and the risks sometimes seem of unusualsize, but we move forward with confidence. Life is full of risks, and this isjust one of them.

Judge not. In the mire of toomany opinions and not enough facts, each family will assess its own risk andact accordingly. Let those with little risk not judge the careful, and let thosewith higher risk not blame others as heedless. As our 2020 grads enter thisfractured world they need positive role models. They need to see people who actwith compassion and courage. Learning how to respect the views of others isbasic to business and really, basic to life in a free and open society. The Reader'sDigest offers nine new etiquette rules for this new day. To sum it up: We don’thave to say everything we think, and we can accept others wherever they fall onthe continuum between low risk to high risk.

Paddle through the rapids. Weonce went on a canoe trip down a mountain river swollen with melted snow frommountains on every side. Was it exhilerating? Absolutely. Was it scary? Attimes. Did we brush against the clammy hands of death? We did crash our canoe,and it took a 2-ton winch to extract it from the river. But we learned thesecret to getting through the rapids. Don’t paddle to safety, rather, paddlethrough them. I think that message has resonated throughout this pandemic. Wecan’t hide from danger, nor can we ignore it. Instead, we paddle forward andtrust the vessel to get us through.

Our 2020 graduates experienced firsthand both the fragilityand tenacity of life. What lessons do we hope they take with them into thisbrave new world?

• First and foremost, we hope they learned howprecious life really is by the heroic efforts to save the most vulnerable.
• Second, we hope they learned how destructivepolar politics is, and while we don’t have a cure for that, it is incumbent oneach citizen to read, evaluate and be responsible for his/her own actions.
• And last, we hope they learned that life morphs,bends and twists into new shapes, but ever continues. Adaptation is thedefinition of survival.

Great courage and sacrifice have characterized variousgenerations of citizens throughout the inception and protection of our nation.Those seeds of greatness often lie seemingly dormant through times of relativeease but rise to the surface in times of hardship. Most of all we hope our 2020grads, and we, their families, have learned to value life and the preservationof our way of life with dignity and grace.