The End of Radical Traditions

Two days ago I attended my last debate tournament as as a competitor.

Yesterday I graduated from high school.

Today, I am announcing the official retirement of Radical Traditions.

As history marches inexorably forward, a new chapter is turned.

Next month I will be teaching, coaching, and judging debate with CFC.

Next year I will be going to college.

I intend to write in a blog again, perhaps a Radical Traditions 2.0.

These transitions do compel a new kind of feeling. I feel reminiscent and content as I look back over my high school career. I can't ask for much more there. At the same time, I feel fond despair as goodbye is "such sweet sorrow." To top it all off, I feel incredibly excited for new locations, new friends, and new experiences. I didn't cry at the last night of the tournament. I didn't bawl at my graduation. I haven't shed hot tears about ending this blog.

But, unlike when one has a birthday, I do feel different (as well as uncharacteristically introspective.) I feel like a character riding off into a sunrise, rather than a sunset. Not that high school was darkness, but now the world dawns anew in a bright, wild, and colossal light. I like what Taylor Carlson said at my graduation ceremony, "it's not an end ... it's a christening ... it's a knighting" Now I intend to earn my spurs. Farewell ... for now.