Illustration by Alyssa Etoile.

Dear Rookies,

May’s theme is Graduation, and is not just about the end of high school, but changes in general. When I told my dad, he suggested Commencement, “because everyone thinks it means ending but it really means beginning,” but I was like, Dad, no one even knows the wrong meaning of that word; it has no PIZZAZZ. So we are doing Graduation, but it’s the same idea: Endings are beginnings, time is passing all the time, you start to write the afterword to the story of your life until it just becomes the foreword to the next book.

As always, check out our Submit page for information on sending in your reflections on these exciting but destabilizing periods of transition. And, if you’re actually graduating soon, HOW ARE YOU FEELING???? We want to know!!

More soon,
Love,
Tavi