On Wednesday, May 26, Sedona Red Rock High School releases another batch of seniors out into the world.

With the onset of graduation season, I began to reflect on my feelings at the age of 18 as I prepared to take the next step in my life. I remember being excited and feeling as if I really could do or be anything.

It’s a bittersweet time in a teenager’s life when he or she says goodbye to old friends and family, and heads out alone toward an unknown future.

Some of Sedona’s graduates will be excited — they can’t wait to get out of here; others will be scared — they’re leaving the safety net they’ve created over the years. Most will feel a mix of both emotions.

Graduating from high school is a sacred right of passage in our culture, and when you’re at that point, it can feel like one of the biggest changes you’ve faced in your life, because it is.

Now, as Sedona’s graduates do the same, I called on the Sedona Red Rock News staff to offer some words of wisdom to the class of 2010. Congratulations graduates.

• n You will meet people who do not like you and people you don’t like, and there will be no reason for it. Do not worry about being liked by everyone. It is not possible. Be the best person you can be and like yourself. It will attract the people who will like you and the people you will like.
• Always have goals. Remember, a person without goals is destined to achieve them.

• Keep an open mind. Activities, classes, people that don’t interest you or have interests different from you? Take those classes, do those activities, make friends with those people. You never know what you can learn and what direction that experience can take you.
• Go with your gut feeling. If something in your heart, head or gut is saying no, there’s a reason. Follow it; you may not get a chance to change it later.

• Travel, as much as possible, throughout your life. You will learn more than you can imagine.

• Always say yes to a new experience. Opportunities rarely come at a time of our choosing.
• Study an art form. Your art and your children are the only legacies you will unselfishly create.

• If you plan on going to college, don’t take a year or two off because you probably will never return.
• Stay at home and don’t move out until you are ready and have a decent income.