Editor’s note: Flandreau just had their graduation last week, complete with social distancing on a cold, wet and rainy day. Mr. Jeremy Haugen, former teacher in Flandreau, now a Lego Robotics Guru and a longtime personal friend and former classmate of mine, wrote this letter addressed to the graduating class of 2020. I enjoyed reading it and felt that my readers and our class of 2020 would find it meaningful as well.
Class of 2020,
I doubt that I’m the graduation speaker that you had planned. I’m certainly no Oprah Winfrey or Barack Obama, Jimmy Fallon or John Legend… or any of the dozen other celebrities who are giving virtual commencement speeches for classes all across this country and world. But I’m here, in South Dakota. I’m going to try my best to share with you some insights I have gained, and once again help a group of excellent kids prepare themselves for life.
So many of the lessons that you learn in school take on additional meaning when you look back at them from middle age. Early on, I know that you have learned nursery rhymes… on face value, rhyming is an important skill early on in reading. However, just like any poem, these rhymes have meanings beyond what you were prepared to understand as a 6-year-old.
Over the years, many people have interpreted Row, Row, Row Your Boat… you can even find these interpretations online. I’m going to give it a shot right now…knowing that the meaning I derive is different from the meaning that others find. No one is wrong or right… each gets their own understanding based on their past experiences and present conditions.
First… let’s say it together.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
Row…. Rowing is an action. You need to be active in your life. This is easy for some… hard for others. Row! But not just once, you need to keep at it. You won’t start out as a strong rower… your early attempts will push you off course. That is fine! As you develop, you will get stronger… you will get better.
A question? Whose boat is it? Well, it is your boat… it is yours. You are the captain. You are in charge of your life … you cannot let others captain for you. It isn’t their boat and they have their own boat. Certainly, things will happen to you, course changes… corrections. You are in charge.
Boat… so what kind of boat are we talking about here? It is a rowboat! It is not a speed boat or a yacht where we have motors to push us. It is not a canoe or kayak, designed by natives in a way that makes sense… where you are facing forward. We are rowing, not paddling after all. No… this is a rowboat and to go forward you need to look backward! That in itself is a lesson… there are choices in life, but sometimes you don’t get to pick. You just must deal with what you are given and make the best of it.
Do you know how to navigate with a rowboat? You really do stay on course by looking backward. You need to fix a point on the shore, and row away from that. You get to pick what that landmark is… it will keep you centered. It will keep you on your path. Eventually, you will travel far enough that you will need to set another fixed point. Such is life but choose your points carefully so that that you know what it is you who are moving… and not your landmark!
Ah… next. Gently down the stream. It is a reminder that the stream will move you. You can’t help that, but also you need to move with the stream. The stream is the societal pressures, the bad choices of others… they will affect you! You need to react gently to these things. Panicked rowing will not get you where you want to go any more than giving up and letting the stream take you. Gentle consistency is the key to handling those pressures.
The merrilies… a reminder that there is joy in life. In little things… in big things… happiness will come. It is our own attitudes that allow us to find and celebrate those joys. If you aren’t merry, then you will struggle to find the joys… even if they are right in front of you. Your attitude is one thing that you have complete control over.
Finally, Life is but a dream. No… life isn’t like The Matrix or Inception. This isn’t the key that reveals that we live in some simulation of a universe or the Illuminati are in control of everything. It does, however, remind us that life is a fleeting and fragile thing. If you are religious like I am, then it also reminds you that there are rewards in the life after this one… and that brings its own peace.
Just 13 different words… words you learned more than 12 years ago. So simple… yet with such depth. I hope that you will take some time to examine those things that you already know for deeper meanings.
Class of 2020, I wish you love, love, and life as you go on to row your own boat. May I suggest that you fix your sights on your family, the values, and the love that your parents instilled in you. Let them be that landmark on which you can count on as you begin life’s journey.
Amen.
-Jeremy Haugen, Flandreau, SD
