The first class of graduates at one of Arlington’s STEM schools graduates this spring. A total of 110 kids are graduating from Martin High School, but two of those kids caused a bunch of reporters to show up to take pictures.

They both got full scholarships to MIT. Naturally, I showed up to give them some advice.

I didn’t graduate from MIT, mind you, and I didn’t study engineering with plans to invent something that would benefit all of humanity. But I DID go to Ball State.

I didn’t have a full scholarship, mind you. But I DID have a partial scholarship. To Ball State.

So, naturally, I offered some counseling.

Maybe the MIT students didn’t know exactly what they wanted to do when they grew up. Neither did I, MIT students, neither did I.

My goals when I showed up at Ball State included figuring out how to use my meal card and the layout of that one building where room numbers that started with “2xx” were not necessarily on the second floor.

Today, one of the things they had to work on was having a bunch of reporters and the superintendent show up to talk to them.

For instance, a photographer had them pose with one of their creations. Then he issued the edict to give him something “sassy.” I’m not entirely sure how I would have responded to that, either.

I probably would have said something smart-alecky, which may be why they’re going to MIT while I rabble-rouse for a living.

The kids are aiming high, though, and I was glad to get a chance to egg them on. One said she was thinking of becoming a Rhodes Scholar.

And when one of them invents a spaceship [or figures out the layout of North Quad on the Ball State campus], I’m glad to have given them the advice to walk around, telling people, “Whatever, though, I’m not a big deal.”

They could even add, “Sure I’m a Rhodes Scholar, but whatever, though.”