Dear Class of 2032

A lot of pundits like to write "graduation speeches" in the spring for the poor, unfortunate newbies heading into the "real world" for the first time.  But today, I'd like to address the incoming kindergartners with a "welcome speech" to get them ready for the next 13 years:

Dear Class of 2032 (doesn't seem super-futuristic to say the year "2032"),

You are about to start the most important 13-years of your life today.  Here are some tips on how to do the best you can.  Don't let anyone hold you back.  If you can do something faster or better than someone else, do it.  Your teacher will likely tell you that everyone needs to finish at the same time or use the same process--but there is nothing wrong with being better.  If your classmates don't want to work harder to catch up to you, then that is their problem--not yours.  And if you are made to work as a group--they like to call it "collaboration"--be the person that is always getting the work done.  It might seem unfair that everyone else is getting the same grade as you--but the time will come when they won't be able to do anything on their own--and you will.

Remember, Everyone doesn't have to be your friend.  The Golden Rule always is true: "treat others the way you would want to be treated".  But that doesn't mean that everyone in your class has to be invited to your birthday party, or given a Valentine's day card, or included in whatever game you play during recess.  You are allowed to like who you like.  And you are absolutely allowed to have a best friend with whom you can spend more time and have more fun than anyone else.

The way things are today is not your fault.  You are five or six years old--your entire life until now has been about playing, eating and sleeping.  Yet, some people are going to make you feel like you are the reason other people may not be as good in school, or have as many toys as you or that one of their parents might be in prison.  Remember, you had absolutely nothing to do with that--despite what some adults might say.  And it is okay that your parents taught you about Jesus, or that your Dad likes to shoot guns, or that you think hamburgers are tasty--just like it is okay for other kids not to know about Jesus, or to have parents that are afraid of guns and that some kids aren't allowed to have tasty burgers.  That doesn't mean you are not allowed to do any of the things that your family likes to do.

It might seem like the homework and the books and the tests are going to be the hardest thing about being in school now--but it will be the adults trying to make all of you the same that you need to worry about.  Good luck and please learn to write and speak in complete sentences.