June 6, 2003 11:12 PM

Graduation wasn't so bad. The cheeseball-ness was kept as minimal as one could possibly expect, though after going through with graduation itself I became far more empathetic of others' feelings about it. As unpleasant and numbing as high school has been at times, it still marks an end to an era - certain experiences are at least linked chronologically to high school, which gives enough meaning to high school for it to matter. The iconoclastic "high-school-sucks-I-can't-wait-until-it-ends" mantra now seems juvenile.

I find it unnervingly weird when I think of things I'll tell my kid. For god's sake, I'm not old enough to be considering what sort of profundities I'll be dishing out when I'm a parent...