Graduation slogans and mottos with a dose of realism.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this postI recently sat around with my father and a few friends and we got to joking about the class mottos that we start to see this time of year, when high school graduates are sending out invitations and announcements.
My beef with the mottos is that they are so filled with hope and promise and "I'm the master of my fate captain of my soul" nonsense that it makes me ill.
Mottos like "Our future is as big as we make it" or "I can do and become anything and no one can stop because all I have to do is think I can do and become anything and that's all it takes" - you might want a poet to clean up that last one and make it flow...but you get my point. The power of positive thinking is limited severly by the fact that I can't think myself rich or disease-free or smart or, as I've woefully discovered, beautiful.
My class motto was "We've come a long way but not half as far as we will go." How far did we come, really, when we were graduating from high school? It was high school! We complained about having to do 30 math problems for homework! I look back and laugh; those were the beginnings of what I call the Stupid Years, ages 16-23 when you think you know everything and really know nothing. Our motto should have been something like "We're a bunch of whiny complainers who fretted about GPA and if our jeans were cuffed tightly enough and in ten years we'll wish we had it so easy and good again. So give us some towels and hangers for college."
Anyway, the little group I was with came up with some alternative graduation mottos. You can read them here and, if you are so inclined, you may download the PDFs of these as cards which only need to be printed out, folded, and used.
Get the six-page PDF "A Dose of Reality" graduation card printout here.
The sayings we came up with, which are found in the cards, are:
1. Every class needs a student like you...who makes the upper 50 percent possible.
2. Dare to dream the impossible...but you'll still be flipping burgers.
3. Prepare to follow your dreams...right into bankruptcy court.
4. Your future is before you...including ten years of student loan repayment.
5. Be prepared for exciting new chapters in life...including chapter 7.
6. Dream big, choose the difficult path...and live off of the state.
Feel free to suggest your own in the comments section.
| tag: graduation |
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 4/09/2006 08:10:00 PM
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4 Comments:
Julie -- I had completely forgotten that class mottos exist. Now that you mention it, though, I believe that my high class did have a class motto. I haven't the slightest recollection of what it might have been. But, it has been 39 years since I graduated. I suppose that the people who write class mottos are the same people who go on to write corporate mission statements. The Dilbert website has a wonderful "corporate mission statement generator" on the Games page. See:
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/games/career/bin/ms.cgi
I always enjoy reading your blog.
By 
, at
10/4/06 07:38
2. Dare to dream the impossible...but you'll still be flipping burgers.
I believe this is the motto of all Arts majors.
By 
kletois, at
11/4/06 03:37
Thank you, Kletois.
As an art major, I can tell you that although I've had to really scrape to find a job...I've yet to flip a burger.
Now, working the french fries - that's a different story.
By Julie, at
11/4/06 07:16
The big high school across the river had its motto carved over the double-doors leading to the gymnasium. The motto reads -- it's still there, nearly fifty years later -- "What You Are To Be, You Are Now Becoming."
It scared the hell out of us.
I can't think of a better result for a high school class motto.
By Wendy, at
12/4/06 13:26
