It appears as if we've arrived at that time of the year again.
It's just past the middle of June, the weather is heating up like crazy, and Saskatchewan is looking like the greener-than-green province it's known to be.聽 A number of things come with this time: ditching the pants for shorts, a renewed interest in every flavor of ice cream, and bringing the temperature in your home to a robust "afternoon in Iceland" degree.
But something else happens every June: high school graduation ceremonies.
Over the past couple of Fridays, I've been on the scene in different communities as their graduating classes have bid farewell to the hallway-dwelling and classroom-enveloping lives they've known for years.聽 Done in style too, as they were parade events.聽 First it was Dinsmore, then it was Loreburn, and heck, even this coming Friday, it'll be Outlook.聽 Events put on out of necessity (I'm looking at you, COVID) but done out of enjoyment to give these kids a platform so that communities can give them a proper thumbs up and wish them well in the future.
I've been the guy who grabs photos and provides coverage of all kinds of these grads over the years, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me think of my time as a high school student.聽 Indeed, it was a simpler time.
I graduated 17 years ago and I think about my time as an 'OHS Blue' quite vividly whenever this time on the calendar rolls around.聽 My real coming-of-age years within the walls and classrooms of Outlook High School came between 1998-2004 and it's a time I retreat back to often.聽 And hey, why shouldn't I?聽 Good lord, things were just so much simpler then compared to now.聽 Back then, I was just a teenager whose views of the world rotated simply around the place where I called home or where I was headed on any particular day or night.聽 My problems were few and far between, I just had to do my part in our household and do my best in school, while enjoying the times with my friends throughout all of it.聽 It was good.聽 It was simple.聽 Quite frankly, it was bliss.
You want to know the best thing about 小蓝视频 a kid at that time?聽 Social media didn't exist!聽 YES!聽 No Facebook, no Twitter, no keeping our eyes glued to a screen and potentially walking directly into a locker or a teacher, or maybe that cutie in the other class who you've got your eyes on.聽 There were no smartphones either, not even regular cellphones with the actual physical buttons you could touch.聽 When I think about it, that's kind of incredible, but it's true.聽 Even as "recently" as 2004, not every Grade 12 student had a phone glued to their hand.聽 Nope, back then the majority of us had good old MSN Messenger, an online chat service.聽 You'd be at home on your computer and DING, Chris has logged on.聽 You'd chat, make plans, whatever suited your needs.聽 Once they or you went offline, that was it.聽 Connection severed until the next time you fired up the internet and logged back in.
I can hear the early 20-somethings right now.聽 "Whoa whoa whoa, you weren't ALWAYS connected?!?聽 You didn't just have a cell in your locker?聽 You didn't even text?!?!?"聽 The answer to all three of those queries is no.聽 And we made do just fine.
When I think back to when I was a teenager, a number of things come up that my friends and I enjoyed.
Cruise laps:聽 Is this a thing anymore in Outlook?聽 I have no idea.聽 It was a very simple activity comprised of, well, driving around town on a particular route.聽 Starting at the school, you went up Franklin Street to Saskatchewan Avenue, at which point you turned right.聽 You went along Sask Avenue until you approached the turn that goes to the ag businesses right on the outskirts of Outlook.聽 On that turn, you did a U-turn back into town.聽 Back down Sask Avenue until you got to the fourway stop at McKenzie Street, at which point you hung a left, and then you'd hang left again onto Conquest Avenue, and you'd end up back where you started near the high school.聽 Again, I ask, is this still a thing?聽 Or is there a new route?聽 Or maybe in the go-go tech-driven world we live in now, driving around aimlessly while the tunes play just isn't cool anymore.
Moviefest:聽 Yep, we had a name for it.聽 Funnily enough, we came up with the name right away, too.聽 It was like we knew this would become a recurring thing throughout the rest of high school.聽 Sure enough, it was.聽 It started as a simple idea back in the late spring of 2002 to have a night of movies, snacks, and way too many jokes and one-liners that only teenage boys would laugh at in my buddy Kyle's basement.聽 What followed was a couple of years worth of good times, good conversations, and an endless stream of movies watched.聽 And I say 'stream' meaning a long, steady, flowing lineup of entertainment in physical form, not the stream we know now as things like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.聽 Again, this is before their time!
These were just some ways that my generation passed the time, and every generation is different.聽 Covering these recent grad events just has a way of bringing up a stirring of emotions in me, almost making me yearn for my youth.聽 Or rather, the relative easiness that came with that youth.聽 There wasn't so much to worry about then, we just got to be kids and left Mom and Dad with the big stuff to fuss over.聽 Man, I'm telling you, I'd love for that time to come back to me.聽 But it's passed and I know that, as tough as the current situation can be at times with Dad and now Mom having passed away.聽 Time just gets away from us, I suppose.
To every student graduating this year, I hope you'll take the time to simply enjoy 小蓝视频 this age and 小蓝视频 at this stage of your life.聽 Don't get all up in a big hurry to maintain some sort of fixed forward position in your life; take some time and enjoy what's out there in the world.聽 Travel, do different things, try your hand at a new experience or two, it's all part of this insane human experience.
Remember one very important thing - YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN!聽 Life may take you here or there or even over there, but it's important to know that home is called 'home' for a reason.聽 It's the place where life makes a little more sense and when has that ever been a bad thing?聽 A close friend of mine came home again after spending 14+ years elsewhere and he legitimately seems happier and more at peace.
Life isn't a race, it's a marathon where we're all just chugging along at our own speed and convenience.聽 Perfectly fine.
Enjoy it while it lasts, because it seems as if you blink and boom, 17 years has gone by in a flash!
For this week, that's been the Ruttle Report.
