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Congratulations 2011 Graduates!

Its been many years since I graduated from Hartland High School, but I still remember how
exciting and scary it was to be moving on to the next chapter of my life. Chapter? Nah, make
that a whole other volume, because my high school education pales in comparison with the
things I learned or did following graduation.

I was filled with a lot of different dreams and ideas in the summer of 1993 when I graduated high
school. Since I was enrolled to start classes at Central Michigan University that Fall, it seemed
like the next four years of the my life had been plotted out.

But, as it turned out, my next four years in college were not as smooth as I thought they would
be, and the years following graduation from CMU weren’t always a picnic, either.

One thing that I learned really quick once I got into the workforce was that it was important to
always be learning, and you should never be afraid to reinvent yourself. Don’t look back at your
last four years in high school as some kind of milestone in life, look at it as one of the most
important skills that will serve you well during the next few years. Secondly, don’t box yourself
into one specific career. Always be ready to reinvent yourself. Continuous learning will help you
with that, but you will also just need to stay open minded to anything that is thrown at you.

When I began attending CMU in the Fall of 1993, jobs like Community Coordinator and web
designer didn’t exist yet. I had never answered the question “What do you want to do when you
grow up?” with the response, “Build websites and direct social media campaigns.” The closest I
could have come to that was Public Relations, Journalism, or Computer Science. Or, maybe
some strange blending of the three.

Yet, here I am 14 years involved in a profession that was never even considered while I was
attending classes at CMU. Throughout the years, my biggest asset was the ability to adjust and
to perform the job that was asked of me, plus a hunger for learning new things. I believe that it
will be those who are the most versatile with their career who will get the positions, and that jobs
of the future will be just as new to your generation as web designer or videoconference
technician were to mine.

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