Words of wisdom
At my fifth-grade graduation, our elementary school principal read the entire class of students, parents, grandparents and other faculty the iconic Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! It took her about a half an hour to read the book because she was overly committed to enunciating every single word.
It was the longest half-hour of my 10-year-old life. Needless to say, I was more than over it.
I went home and complained to my mom that it took her forever to read us some kid book, and all I wanted to do was move on to recess and go home so I could change out of the dress we bought from Kohl’s for the occasion.
I have since graduated middle school and high school, and for whatever reason, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! has been associated with every single milestone. I even went to a graduation party just last year where all of the guests were asked to sign a copy of Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Why have we allowed this to become a thing? Don’t get me wrong — the book has a great message and beautifully colored pictures. But when people graduate high school or college, let’s be honest — the last thing they want to receive is a Dr. Seuss book. Mostly, they just want cold, hard cash, because the real world doesn’t accept picture books as currency, as unfortunate as that is.
Look, we already know we’re going places and that we’ve got brains in our heads and feet in our shoes. Hopefully, by this point, we’ve got our lives together to the point at which we’re already steering ourselves in the directions we choose. (Key word being “hopefully,” by the way.) We don’t need a book to tell us how to live our lives.
There is no reason that this book should be synonymous with the word “graduation.” Yet it inexplicably is. Oh, The Places You’ll Go! belongs with the rest of the books in Target, not in the “gifts for recent grads” section.
If you’re thinking of giving a recent graduate a copy of this book because it’s “cute” or “has such a powerful message,” please don’t. Chances are, your gift is going to end up collecting dust shoved in a corner somewhere. Give Oh, the Places You’ll Go! to a deserving kid who wants to be an astronaut and I guarantee you that they’ll take away a lot more from it than a high school senior ever would. Come on, Dr. Seuss deserves a lot more credit than that.
