GRADUATION

    This is the time of year for graduations, for everything from kindergarten to University.  I came across a poem I wrote when I was about to graduate from high school, and decided to share it with you.  I wrote it as ‘free verse’, but I’m not sure it would be considered that by a real poet…

                               Graduation
                    Gates have closed behind us now.
                    Some stride boldly out, confident
                    That life holds good for those who seek it.
                    Others of us hesitate, and look behind,
                    To peer between the latticework at things no
                                            more for us;
                    Then slowly turn around to find
                    A multitude of gates.
                    Some opening, beckoning.
                    Some good, some bad.
                    All life seems one vast maze of gates,
                    And true enough.
                    Some must be stormed that do not easy open.
                    Some must be scorned that beckon us
                    To ugly things,
                     Paltry things,
                     Things of degradation.
                     This is our challenge to be met;
                     We venture forth, heads high.
                                          #

    In my day, if a family had any money for college, your brothers got it, so I never even considered applying.  (Neither did my older brother, since there wasn’t any money for him either.)  My plan was to work for awhile, then enlist in the Cadet Nurse Corps, which was a training course for nurses and you paid for it by pledging 4 years to the military. I took an office job at Curtis Wright, the largest airplane factory in the USA, located in Buffalo, NY.
    The program and the war ended (WW2) While I was still working and I was laid off. Not knowing what else to do, I took my savings and entered business school.
    Next time I’ll write about how I met my husband, which happened in the middle of all this.