taking another step

Okay.  It’s real.  I’m actually graduating from college in a little over a month.

So far the whole college education thing has been surreal to me.  However, today, I bought the cap and gown and that made it official somehow.  It’s been a long journey getting here: over 36 years.  I went to a semester of college right out of high school, but because I was unsure of what I wanted to do and I was paying for it, I thought I’d get out into the world for a while and figure some things out.  Ten years later I did.

Both my husband and I were late bloomers, so society deems us.  But how many people really know at age 18 what they want to do for the rest of their lives?  I did not grow up in a household where money was in ample supply nor did I have much after I graduated.  So I didn’t want to “waste” it on something I wasn’t going to use in the future.  Ironically now, it seems like an undergraduate degree is becoming just a stepping stone to the graduate degree.  And changing careers and jobs is much more flexible than it used to be, even ten years ago.  Part of me wishes I would have just gotten the undergrad back then which would have granted me the freedom to figure out what I really wanted and pursue a graduate degree later, meaning now.

But there’s no looking back.  Yet I’m still finding out what it is I really want to do with my life; there’s not just one thing.  And in the interim, I’m living and doing things with my life now.  I’m very thankful to have had this college educational experience-perhaps untraditionally, but it is still a part of my journey.  This stage of my life is coming to a close which is sad yet exciting.  It’s not the end, it’s only the beginning.   I think more than anything what I take with me is a deeper understanding of myself.  I’ve proven something to myself; not to society.

These past four years was not just a time to “get through.”  In the big picture it will be a very short period in the span of my life.  However, it was a step.  A step I followed through to the end so that I could take another step on a new path which will hopefully take me to another challenging step as I continue to learn and grow.  With or without a graduation ceremony, we need to celebrate each step in this amazing journey called life.