4 months and 24 days later...
i'm officially a college graduate. after all this time, i opened up the mailbox today to find a large white Hope College envelope labeled: diploma, do not bend.
and now it sits leaning against the wall behind my desk in it's black suade mat frame, waiting to be stored away until i have an office to hang it in (next to my green suade mat frame roosevelt mfa degree i'll have someday...) i've never been once to define success by things like a framed diploma on the wall. but when i opened it and framed it today i felt a certain sense of pride, of accomplishment, of excitement. and i wondered exactly why.
sure, i'm proud of the "cum laude" listed under my full name and the fact that when i thought i had just missed the cut-off for graduating with honors, i managed to do it. i'm proud of the "major: english" and "minors: dance, religion" listed on my final transcript. i'm proud of glancing through my final transcript and discovering that maybe i didn't do so badly grade-wise afterall.
but what i'm more proud of... is seeing how many classes i managed to take that i really enjoyed. so many dance and writing classes, piano, photography, classes in vienna... like jack always told me, i did college the way he wished everyone would.
and this framed diploma means so much more to me than the classes, the grades, the academic achievement. it means that while i managed to do all that, pull off decent grades and fill myself with knowledge, i know i didn't spend all my time studying. i know i didn't waste a single second of my college experience. this diploma means spending exam weeks sledding or at the beach (weather depending...) it means countless late night trips to meijer or steak and shake or the beach. it means chapel and gathering, living in the kletz, or the pine grove on a sunny day. it means poetry blitz, potlucks at professors' houses, and classes that became friends outside of class. it means living in the dow/durfee/knick and forgetting to eat lunch/dinner. it means so so so many people that touched and changed my life in so many ways i can't count them... but i know i'll never forget them.
yeah i admit it, sometimes i feel a bit "hopesick". i'm not the only one. i just have to keep remembering what jack told me way back in my first year seminar. "missing is a good thing, it means you have something to miss." and for that, i am grateful. so grateful.
and now it sits leaning against the wall behind my desk in it's black suade mat frame, waiting to be stored away until i have an office to hang it in (next to my green suade mat frame roosevelt mfa degree i'll have someday...) i've never been once to define success by things like a framed diploma on the wall. but when i opened it and framed it today i felt a certain sense of pride, of accomplishment, of excitement. and i wondered exactly why.
sure, i'm proud of the "cum laude" listed under my full name and the fact that when i thought i had just missed the cut-off for graduating with honors, i managed to do it. i'm proud of the "major: english" and "minors: dance, religion" listed on my final transcript. i'm proud of glancing through my final transcript and discovering that maybe i didn't do so badly grade-wise afterall.
but what i'm more proud of... is seeing how many classes i managed to take that i really enjoyed. so many dance and writing classes, piano, photography, classes in vienna... like jack always told me, i did college the way he wished everyone would.
and this framed diploma means so much more to me than the classes, the grades, the academic achievement. it means that while i managed to do all that, pull off decent grades and fill myself with knowledge, i know i didn't spend all my time studying. i know i didn't waste a single second of my college experience. this diploma means spending exam weeks sledding or at the beach (weather depending...) it means countless late night trips to meijer or steak and shake or the beach. it means chapel and gathering, living in the kletz, or the pine grove on a sunny day. it means poetry blitz, potlucks at professors' houses, and classes that became friends outside of class. it means living in the dow/durfee/knick and forgetting to eat lunch/dinner. it means so so so many people that touched and changed my life in so many ways i can't count them... but i know i'll never forget them.
yeah i admit it, sometimes i feel a bit "hopesick". i'm not the only one. i just have to keep remembering what jack told me way back in my first year seminar. "missing is a good thing, it means you have something to miss." and for that, i am grateful. so grateful.
posted by KTB at
7:23 PM
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