The end of an era

A tweet by @DanteShepherd (the guy behind SurvivingTheWorld.net) reminded me that this is graduation time for a lot of people (specifically High School and College Seniors, along with other degree seekers) and that some people have a hard time moving onto the next phase of their lives.
Here’s the article that spawned this post. The previous post is also quite good. Both are worth reading and they set a melancholy tone which always seems appropriate for an ending.

I had my own graduation 5 years ago. Friends and family came up to see me. We had an enjoyable late lunch at Jason’s Beachside Grille. I moved between the 2 booths and long table we had, talking with my guests. I didn’t feel any disconnect; for most of these people, I would be seeing them again the very next day. I presume that I didn’t feel the disconnect because I wasn’t leaving town, changing jobs, or even changing houses.

My job remained the same, although I was officially made a full time employee and given an official title. My lease wasn’t up, so I didn’t consider changing houses. All in all, not much changed for me after graduation. Maybe that’s why I never felt the sense of loss that so many graduates feel.

So many of my classmates stayed in the area after graduation that most of us didn’t really think it was the end. When people did move away, it was usually quietly. You wouldn’t find out about it unless you actually looked for them, and by then they were already gone. No going away party, no final night of drinks or gaming, they were just gone.

Maybe it was different for me since I already had a job and didn’t have an egregious amount of loans to pay back. I knew some classmates who were not so lucky, either losing their job right before graduation, or coming out with enough loans to mortgage a small home.

Or maybe I’m just a heartless bastard who doesn’t care about the people around me.

Eh… could go either way I suppose.