Passage

It's probably strange to start a blog about branding, marketing, recruiting, and social media with something like this - but you've got to start somewhere.

My eldest daughter, Maia, graduated high school tonight. I scared the living daylights out of the people during in front of me when I yelled for her, but I didn't care. I watched her, and a couple hundred of her classmates, walk the big walk and take their diploma. On their way off the stage, each had a look in their eyes. They might give the thumbs up or stick out their tongue or just try not to trip over their own feet, but the look was the same: hope.

This is what rites of passage do. They close a door and open up a universe. They're scary and exciting and usually chaotic. Graduations, falling in love, weddings, births, moving, breaking up, divorce, quitting, changing jobs...all times of endings and beginnings.

I've had a few of those myself, and I've learned from all of them. I'm happy to say I'm still learning. I've recently been through a rite of passage our two of my own. I didn't expect them or ask for them...but they came anyway, and they opened up more possibilities than they closed. This is where I'll write about what happens next.

So I watched Maia and the others as they crossed the stage into their new lives. They have so much ahead of them. And a lot behind them. I may be at a point where I have more to look back on than forward to. I'm probably a little jaded, so I may not always have something good to say. I'm picky, so I may be critical.

But I have hope. And that's a start.