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Pomp and stuff

Graduation season is upon us. Colleges will start wrapping up spring semesters as early as April. High schools will wrap up in late May and early June. Other programs often have some kind of graduation and take summers off.

I’ve attended a lot of graduations. I was in the band in high school and played Pomp and Circumstance from seventh through eleventh grade until it was my turn to be on stage. Played in the band in college for three years until my own graduation ceremony. Then I went to work for the newspaper and covered all kinds of graduations for 18 years.

They are certainly important and exciting times for participants but they can also be confusing. Is a graduation an end of something or a beginning? Is graduation the end of a sprint or the beginning of a marathon? Is it a time for laughter or a time for tears? I guess it’s all of those things.

But I like the race metaphor for the “track meet” of life in general. We do experience sprint-type activities. Tremendous effort to attain a goal in a relatively short time. We experience marathon-type activities, too. Pacing ourselves to meet long-term goals.

I think in real athletics, people specialize in one or the other type of race. Remember gym class? Remember the physical fitness tests that counted toward our grade? We had to run “the 880,” 880 yards, a half mile, two laps on the track around “The Pasture of Pain”…. Now I think it’s gone metric and people run 800 meters. I’m not going to take the time to do the math, but since a meter is longer than a yard, the total distances must be comparable. I was a wiry, agile, little guy, but never really athletic. That run was brutal for me. It combined the difficulties of the sprint and the marathon. It was a pretty long run that was supposed to be run as quickly as possible.

At this point in life, though, I’ve decided that viewing life as either a sprint, a marathon, or that miserable mid-distance race, isn’t the most helpful model. I’ve moved to the “relay race” metaphor.

Relays require that a group work together to achieve the goal. Each person does her or his share to contribute to the project. The coordination is the critical thing. If you get a chance, go to a track meet and stand at one of the exchange zones at a relay race. It’s organized chaos. If there are four lanes, there are eight people, running at full speed, jockeying to be in the right lane, and transferring the baton from one person to another. The baton exchange is the “hand-off” that requires a trust, confidence, and practice. Races are won and lost based on how well this is accomplished. Drop the baton, and you’re disqualified.

This is a pretty good representation of “real life.” So, you 2017 graduates of high school, college, and other programs, consider the “relay race” model. Surround yourselves with people with whom you like to live and work. Find common interests and goals. Develop trust and confidence in yourself and your team, athletic or otherwise. Develop a sense that you are contributing to the success of the endeavor as part of a team. Work on the hand-offs to ensure smooth transfer of information, help when needed, and continuity of things important to you.

Here’s another reason I like the relay race metaphor. The individual world record for the 400 meter dash is 43.03 seconds. That’s REALLY fast. But for the equivalent relay, the 4 x 100, four people run 100 meters each. The record is 37.04. See what good teamwork can do!

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