To Make a Beginning

What we call the beginning is often the end and to make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is where we start from. ~ T. S. Eliot

One of my few guilty pleasures is American Idol.  I never miss it.  Even if I am not home during the live performance, I always make sure that I have the show recorded.  My favorite segment is the musical montage at the beginning of the live show, which is usually supported by a well-written text or quote.  A few weeks ago, the above quote was featured.  Whoa...I stopped the recording and pressed rewind, then I stopped it again and grabbed a pencil and paper.

What we call the beginning  - Stop
is often the end - Stop
and to make an end - Stop
is to make a beginning. - Stop
The end is where we start from. - Stop
~ T. S. Eliot

This past weekend, my family celebrated an end ~ college graduation for two adult children on the same day! I thought about that quote many times during the process.  To make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is where we start from.  Despite our attempts to celebrate such a satisfying accomplishment ~ a happy ending ~ we all felt a fainthearted uneasiness.  At one point, I even said to my husband that I almost felt as if they were graduating from kindergarten.  Timid...apprehensive...shy.

Four years of dedicated and diligent study had prepared them...not for an end, but for a beginning. The program confirmed as much...Spring Commencement Exercises 2012.  Commencement!   Admission, dawn, debut, curtain-raiser, opening, origin, birth...beginning!  Throughout the week, we kept talking about graduation day ~ the end; however, as each student was handed a diploma, our conversations changed.  This was commencement day ~ the beginning!

Today is Tuesday, only three days after they received their diplomas, and yet our accomplished graduates have been reduced to apprehensive job seekers.  Twenty-seven applications on Monday, nineteen on Tuesday, and many more to be completed.  They are no longer the top of their class, they are now the entry level positions; no longer the graduating seniors, now the first year associates.  To make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is where we all start from. This is the place where they depart from all they knew for sure and enter the place where they have no clue. This is the place where they make a beginning!

What we call the beginning

is often the end

and to make an end

is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from.

Dianne ; )