I Did It!

So last night I pulled out my cap and gown to try on for the first time. While standing in the mirror trying to figure out how to make my cap look good with short hair, a flood of emotions ran through me and I began to cry. While that’s really no surprise because I’m one of the most emotional people in the world, I was still trying to figure out why I was crying. Was it because starting June 15^th, I’ll finally be forced to start paying back my $30k in student loans for the rest of my life? Was it because my cap made me look like Harry from Dumb and Dumber? While those are both true, neither of those were the reason for my tears.

It was because of something much deeper.

For a reason unknown to me, I decided to make college the hardest, most stressful, time consuming, expensive thing of my life. I began my college career the year I graduated high school. I was the typical 18 year old college student; fresh out of high school with my whole life ahead of me. With the exception of 3 semesters, I’ve been in college every semester ever since. That’s a total of 9 years. During those 9 years, I became everything but a typical college student-- I got married, went through a divorce, had a baby, became a single mom, moved a dozen times between 2 different states, changed jobs 7 times, changed majors 3 times, and was diagnosed with Leukemia.

I can’t even count how many times that I wanted to give up. I dropped all of my classes one semester because my life was spinning out of control. If you’ve read My Hardest Confession, then you know what I’m talking about. Another semester I thought was my second to last so I decided to take 18 hours in Bowling Green, while also working and living in E’town, and raising a 4 year old, only to find out after that semester that I still wasn’t even close to graduating. And again last year, I thought I would finally be finished only to be delayed again because I had to cut my class load down thanks to my newly diagnosed health issues. Above all that, there were so many nights I just didn’t’ want to read that book, or write that paper, or complete that assignment, or go to that class, because I wanted to just hang out with Talon, or needed to focus on work, or wanted to go to bed early, or just wanted to be a normal 20 some year old and was just over it. But here’s the thing, and this is what I am so proud of, and this is what makes this day so emotional for me, through all of that, never, never did I give up.

And why I like to take all of that credit, I can’t. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well it also takes a village to get Dana through college. I couldn’t have made it through college without my family, friends, employers, teachers, and the grace of God.

Family/Friends--

A lot of my classes were taken at night, with the exception of a couple of semesters. While I always tried to schedule my classes on the nights Talon was with his dad, it didn’t always work out. But thanks to my parents, sisters, and best friend Sara, that wasn’t an issue because they would watch him for me so I could go to class. Thank you all for helping me to achieve my goal of graduating college.

Employers—

My bosses from my last three jobs I’ve had have been so accommodating, working around my school schedule, allowing me to take classes, and still work, with benefits, and good pay. Thank you Ronnie Pence, Dale Crowder, and Ryan/Adam for helping me to achieve my goal of graduating college.

Teachers—

I’ll admit, I’ve thrown a lot at my teachers over the years. There have been a number of times I’ve had to take Talon to class with me.  I can’t count how many times I’ve been late for class because I was coming straight from work. I can’t count how many times my teachers have given me second chances on assignments I put little effort in the first time. And this past year, I’ve had several who even went above and beyond that. Last summer semester, I had a paper due for a final on a Monday. I had known about this assignment for a couple of weeks but in true Dana fashion, I waited until the last weekend before it was due to do it. That same weekend, I was hospitalized for three days due to having emergency surgery. When I emailed my teacher to let her know that I wouldn’t be submitting my final in time, instead of her telling me tough luck, I shouldn’t have waiting until the last minute to do it, she gave me a week extension to finish it. Thank you to all of my teachers for helping me to achieve my goal of graduating college.

I’ll finish this post with some things that I learned along the way (besides the obvious about my majors) during these last 9 years::

These last 9 years, I have learned….

·        How to complete an 8 hours assignment in 2 hours—enough said. J

·        What I want to be when I grow up—It only took changing my major three times, 9 years, and 160 credit hours.

·        That I have the best support system—As I already mentioned, I really couldn’t have done this without my family.

·        That I have a knack for creative writing—I think my high school English teachers would be shocked, as I still am.

·        No matter how hard it gets, never give up.

I have sacrificed so much over these last few years, but I can honestly say, it was totally worth it. Graduating college will always be one of my biggest accomplishments in life. Because of that, I couldn’t be more proud to say that today, I am officially a college graduate of Western Kentucky University, Class of 2013.