By: Jessie Edison
After four years, hundreds of study hours and a few dozen mental breakdowns, I was finally at my commencement ceremony.
I arrived on campus at 9:30am with my cap firmly bobby-pinned and not nearly enough coffee in my system. As my friends and colleagues arrived in their caps and gowns, I started realizing that this was really happening… I was actually graduating today and I had made it.
For me it was a moment of relief and pride. I’d struggled with depression and anxiety since I was a pre-teen, and there was time in my life when I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it to this moment.
College had been a very finicky roller coaster the past four years. I could look back and remember moments of pure bliss, like becoming Editor-in-Chief of this fine publication you are currently reading (the Griffon). There were also moments of great stress, like actually acting as the Editor-in-Chief of a college publication.
Missouri Western gave me so many opportunities that I’m grateful for. I was able to travel for school conferences to places like Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York without financial concern. For a person who grew up eating rice and beans for months straight, being given opportunities like this has been a dream come true.
Getting to work with three student publications is something I would have never done at a larger school, like Mizzou, either. And of course, meeting the love of my life was something that never would have happened if I’d actually landed my “dream school” instead of coming Western. Western gave me a lifetime of experience in just four short years.
While it was a rough ride at times, it was definitely one I didn’t regret as a marched onto the field on commencement day. I was side-by-side with my friends, my family was cheering for me in the crowd and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. I couldn’t have asked for a better commencement.
Of course there was the inconvenience of sitting in the summer heat in an all black robe for an hour and a half, but it was worth it when I heard my name called and I walked across the stage. And what better way to end my time here? Watching the drunk guy behind me try to discretely pee in a water bottle in the middle of the ceremony. I expected no less from my alma mater.