on "graduation"

I "graduated" from school a long time ago at the dawn of "social media" but what did "graduation" mean?

To "graduate" and to "graduate from"

First off, most people don't know that the verb "to graduate" in English should not happen by itself, but should come before the word "from". Many would say something like:

"I graduated high school! I hope to graduate university in four years!"

"Graduation" happens from one setting to another. It should not mean something that comes out of nowhere, but a much longer undertaking!

The slow stepping up?

The word "graduate" has its origins:

• from the Latin graduo ("I graduate")
  • this itself stems from gradus which means "step" (as in a "step up")
  • from gradus, we also get the word "gradual"

The slow climb!

However, we should see "graduation" like going up a slope, rather than steps:

• these "students" in truth "graduate from school", starting from their first day of school!
• soon enough (or much later), they do reach a bounding line: the "graduation ceremony"
  • they then, at long last, "graduate from" school

"Boundaries" or "mile markers"?

In the Western world, that "arbitrary" line that they cross becomes an "ending":

• both "graduands" and "graduates" mostly see "graduation" as the sharp line between two "countries" of time
  • the "ceremony" is then like some "customs checkpoint"
  • it becomes a "migration" from a land of learning to a land of something else
• they seldomly see the "ceremony" as a mere "mile marker"

Little do they know that the trip of learning keeps going, far and beyond where the land meets the sky!

So, when one "graduates", it does not mean "to be done with learning", but to keep building upon that learning, only doing so away from the school building!