Graduation

Last week I finished something I started 15 years ago. I graduated from Junior College. I am well aware that AA degrees do not hold much value nowadays, but I finished it. It feels great to have it completed, to be able to check the box next to 'Completed College' instead of wishing there were a box for 'Some College Completed' or 'Lots of Units-no degree'. I believe it will also show my children that education was important enough to their parents to make completing the degree a priority. As for the actual ceremony, I sat in the mist of the graduating class with my full pregnant belly staring up at my husband, son, father, his wife, father in law, mother in law and two of my sister in laws cheering me on from the top of the bleachers. I am the first in my family to complete a degree. It was a great feeling to see my Dad beaming the entire time. My SILs reported back to me that everytime a graduating name was announced Clay would cheer, "Yay for Mommy!" I was also proud to have graduated with honors. I owe a great deal of this accomplishment to my husband. He encouraged me to return to school on a full time basis while we were still dating and continued to support my decision once we were married. I was working in retail management when we met. I liked my job and was successful at it. He said I should love my job and he was right. I stepped down from my job and returned to school for Early Childhood Education. I loved learning and my classes. I earned A's in all but statistics. This raised my GPA from a 1.6 to a 3.8. (Yikes, right!) When my schooling stalled all those years ago I had been working 2-3 jobs to pay for it and my modest living expenses. I worked two jobs that ran from 4pm to 7am the next morning. I fell asleep in most of my classes and sometimes during the third job which was Wednesdays from 10am-12pm. I was not getting anywhere and finally waved a white flag until my DH's encouragement. Now the plan is to transfer to a UC and enter into to a ECE provider program where I will go to school one night a week for two years straight in order to complete the necessary degree work and one full semester of general ed for my BA in Child Development. A professor once told me that it takes more than smarts to earn a degree, it takes tenacity. It may take another 15 years to complete with raising children and expenses, but still worth it. If I believe that education is important for my children then it better be important to me too!