Over the past couple weeks, while societal tension and unrest have dominated the news during our coronavirus pandemic, graduation season has come and gone for most communities here in Indiana.  Of course, graduations have looked different this year, as all the ceremonies I know about have either taken place virtually or been postponed.  However, I wanted to take this opportunity to honor the graduates of this strange year by offering a graduation speech of my own.  After all, I have a blog now, so I can do this.

So, let’s be honest.  Unless you have given a graduation speech yourself (which I haven’t), how many of us who have graduated remember anything from the speeches?  Mainly what I remember is being in extremely hot and crowded gyms for both my high school and college graduations, and how they both took forever to read through the list of names, but I don’t really remember much from any of the speeches.  We may have heard some excerpts from “Oh, the places you’ll go!” by Dr. Seuss, or how this isn’t just the end, but a beginning of a new chapter.  But for some reason, the graduation speech I do remember the most comes from a TV show.  Because of course it does.

On this blog, you will typically see me reference several TV shows that I consider to be among my all-time favorites.  Boy Meets World is not one of these shows.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked the show.  It just doesn’t happen to crack my “favorites” list, and this post is probably going to be the only one you’ll see on this blog with a reference to that show.  I’ve probably seen most of the episodes once on Disney Channel reruns and while I did enjoy it, it’s not like I have the DVDs or have watched them over and over or anything like that.  However, one scene from this show has stuck with me for quite some time that I would like to reference here.

Before I get into this scene, I have to build some context here for those who may not be familiar with the show.  The series, which ran for seven seasons, features Cory, his eventual girlfriend Topanga, and his best friend Shawn.  When the show started in the fall of 1993, the kids were 6^th graders.  Since the show ran for seven seasons and ended in the spring of 2000, this should have meant that they were graduating from high school at that time.  However, for some reason, everyone skips two years in there somewhere with no explanation that I am aware of, the gang graduates in 1998 at the end of the fifth season, and the series ends in 2000 while they are in college.  That timeline annoys me because I want to know what happened to those two missing years that got skipped.

That particular criticism aside, it really is a good show.  The scene that I always remember is from that high school graduation episode.  Topanga, always the conscientious good student, earns valedictorian honors.  In a surprise move, however, she cedes her graduation speech to Shawn, who gives this speech shown here in this three-minute video below.

While valedictory speeches at graduation are generally seen as coming from the most successful member of the class, Shawn was the guy who had experienced his share of troubles on his journey to this point, and had rarely taken school seriously.  In case you didn’t watch the video above, the quick recap is that Shawn’s speech suddenly turns somber as he concludes his speech by regretfully saying, “I’m sorry.  I could have done better.  Congratulations to those of you who did.”  Oh, and while watching the video, I was not wiping away a tear at the end. I, um, had something in my eye.

Although it’s just from a TV show, this scene got me thinking, and I wanted to share it here during graduation season.  When the time comes for us to graduate from life, whenever that time is, if given one last-minute chance to reflect on it, are we going to look back fondly, or are we going to have to say, “I could have done better”?  This question goes beyond the larger point our eternal destination once we die, although I do believe that part is most important.  But even more than that, this is more of a challenge to anyone reading this, as well as to myself.  Are there any areas where we can do better?  Is there anything we’re not doing that we know we should be, or anything that we are doing that we know we should stop?  This isn’t meant to fill us with regret over any shortcomings or past failures.  These are just questions that I would encourage us to ask ourselves.  Something to get the ball rolling, challenge ourselves, and maybe even help us take any necessary steps we need to take, so that we won’t have to look back later with regret like Shawn and say “I could have done better.”

So, now that I’ve made my deep point for the day, to sum up, happy graduation to any graduates out there, Boy Meets World was a good show, and let’s reflect on how we can each do better.  Let me close this out with the following words from Dr. Seuss in “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

So be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shaea,
You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So get on your way!