The World Awaits

Summer arrived at Birmingham High School a week ago. Never mind that the fog didn’t lift until noon or that classes would continue for two more weeks.

Summer arrived in the form of the senior picnic, and the Class of ‘99, decked out in shorts and T-shirts and armed with water cannons, celebrated the end of one era and the beginning of the next.

This was not an event for teary farewells and thoughtful meditation; these kids were having too much fun flinging Frisbees and waging water-balloon warfare. Still, students who took time out to talk reflected an ambivalence about the road ahead.

On the one hand, students said they long for the independence that adult life offers. But many wish they could have a guiding hand to ease them into a changing world.

Roman Gorbatkin, 18, said that he’s ready to move on but worries about having to make decisions for himself.

“We’ll have to take responsibility for our own actions now,” Gorbatkin said. “It could be tough, but overall I think the world we’re entering will be OK.”

Arshak Hovsepian, 18, said that he wished his senior year would last forever. “School has been more than just an education; it’s social too. I don’t want to let go.”

“Once we leave high school, it’s an equal playing field out there, whether you’re a jock, an honor student or whatever,” said Thao Nguyen, one of Birmingham’s 14 class valedictorians. “Our choices are amazing, but we all have to face the violence, the new technology, the overall pressure.”

‘ “Overwhelmed” is the word English and drama teacher Cathy Jo Foss said she hears most often when students describe the Zeitgeist of this generation.

Overwhelmed with the rapidly changing technology, overwhelmed with too much information, overwhelmed with choices that didn’t exist 10 years ago.

“I’m always hearing that they have no idea what their job situation will be four years from now,” Foss said. “They’re very aware that the world is changing too quickly, and they’re afraid they won’t be able to keep up.”

Indeed, when asked about the greatest challenge facing them after high school, the young adults frequently mentioned the imperative to keep up with technology, while maintaining their individuality and humanity.

Peyman Gravori, 18, managed to find the silver lining in the techno-world many of his peers fear.

“We’ll still be human beings, we’ll just be lazier,” he said. “You won’t have to get out of your chair to do anything.”

Seated on bleachers at the far end of the baseball field, 18-year-old Jennifer Brill casually flipped through the pages of her yearbook, unconcerned for the moment with career goals, and apparently unaffected by the ear-blasting rap music rocking the wooden stands.

Among the best wishes for a nice summer scribbled by friends inside her yearbook was a neatly written admonition to “Stay as nice as you are. Find a nice guy, not one who’ll tell you what to do.”

As the last water cannon exploded and the wet, exhausted party-goers began rounding up their belongings, class president Tiara Pilatto picked up a microphone and asked her fellow students to pick up the littered balloons.

As the students started filing into the adjacent parking lot, Kindra Garrison, 17, looked around the deserted field and sighed.

“Birmingham was cool, it was good,” Garrison said. “Now we’re going to be on our own. I guess we’d better make the most of it.”