This graduating year Seniors are both plagued by and blessed with this time of transition. Though all years can be full of transformation, 2025 is specifically known as the year of the snake, a symbol for transformation because as a snake sheds its old skin we also shed our old lives. This can’t be more true for this year’s seniors as they jump into the adult world head first. Some students are excited, scared, anxious, or somewhere inbetween. For good reason, because becoming an adult is hard and nerve wracking. You’re a little fish in a big pond, everything you have known up to this point is going to be different. Many students are leaving home, going to college, starting trade schools, or taking a gap year. It is normal to feel nervous because some students may feel they aren’t ready. Change is scary, but as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant of life.” In our constantly shifting world the best thing one can do is embrace it regardless of the vast uncertainty it holds. With this graduation year, I had the pleasure to interview Mr. Baranski in a Q/A regarding advice for young people stepping into the adult world.
“What is one of the best thing’s students can do as they make this transition into adulthood?”
“One thing I think our society has not done well somewhat recently is to really honor the transition to adulthood. I would like students to embrace the responsibility that should come with more freedom and with that embrace leave from their parents house and live on their own. Except that it is going to be harder than it was, but there should be more freedom to help find a balance with responsibility.”
“What would be the worst thing in your opinion for graduating students?”
“If your life hasn’t changed a lot by the end of the summer of 2025, I worry about your ability to make that transition. There are cases when someone has that plan and that plan is going to take longer, but I think statistics show the longer you haven’t made a significant change, that change is going to be harder.”
“What do you think these years from 18 to 20s are best used for?”
“Though it is a cliche I think that cliche is accurate, that is very much, self discovery. If your life is different as it should be as a young adult then you are going to learn some things about yourself. I would hope that you push your boundaries when it comes to your comfort zone and then use that time to figure out who you want to be.”
“If you were going to give advice to your 18 year old self now what would that advice be?”
“I would tell myself and any senior, to be more willing to put myself out their socially, meet new people, and be more willing to be vulnerable with people. And then the other big one for me would be, I had a lot of preconceived assumptions about a lot of different things. And as a now 39 year old dad, I think one of my strengths now is being able to question everything.
“What do you think is the most harmful or difficult thing for our age group as we go into adulthood?”
“I think our society failed young people today with phones, and I hope we try to remedy that soon. I know it sounds cliche from a dad, but I think social media has made people more anxious, I think it has inhibited people from coping with things appropriately. The amount of information at our fingertips today makes it hard to find good information, because there is so much unnecessary or bad information out there. So trying to find the actual truth is really hard nowadays, and if you are trying to find out who you are and what you want to do there are a lot of things to get in your way of finding that.”
“Did you know what you wanted to be or what you wanted to do in your senior year of high school?”
“I had ideas, I very much see that era of my life as a different person. Yes, I think I had multiple ideas of who I wanted to be and I absolutely failed at those regularly as an eighteen year old man. I can remember several instances where I am disappointed with my decisions and responses ect. That gives me hope for a lot of students. If I was consistently disappointed with myself as an eighteen year old and I’m doing a lot better now, there is hope for others.”
“What would be some misconceptions specifically for teen boys that might not be healthy?”
“I think I was the cliche young man who was not particularly in touch with my emotions. I didn’t know how to have those conversations, I probably pushed my feelings down and didn’t deal with them appropriately. And I would assume there are also nowadays teen boys who struggle with that sort of thing since our society hasn’t changed that much in that regard. With that, just the willingness to be vulnerable, whether that be looking silly, or standing up for a freshman, or asking a girl to a dance, or just being unapologetically yourself without having too much anxiety about what others think.”
Whether you may be planning on attending college, trade school, or taking a gap year this year is a period of transition regardless. The world is full of differentiating opinions that differ broadly between perspectives, morals, and values that can often become overwhelming; however, we hope that for those seeking input this article provides them some more insight to take into account from Mr. Baranski.
