{"id":2325,"date":"2018-07-23T17:47:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T17:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/?page_id=1257"},"modified":"2019-06-30T21:57:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T02:57:08","slug":"spring-commencement-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/2018\/07\/23\/spring-commencement-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Commencement 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Jessie Edison<\/p>\n

After four years, hundreds of study hours and a few dozen mental breakdowns, I was finally at my commencement ceremony<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2026 I was actually graduating today and I had made it. <\/span><\/p>\n

For me it was a moment of relief and pride. I\u2019d struggled with depression and anxiety since I was a pre-teen, and there was time in my life when I honestly didn\u2019t think I was going to make it to this moment. <\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/i>). There were also moments of great stress, like actually acting as the Editor-in-Chief of a college publication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Missouri Western<\/a> gave me so many opportunities that I\u2019m 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\u00a0eating rice and beans for months straight, being given opportunities like this has been a dream come true. <\/span><\/p>\n

Getting to work with three student publications is something I would have never done at a larger school, like Mizzou<\/a>, either.<\/span> And of course, meeting the love of my life was something that never would have happened if I\u2019d actually landed my \u201cdream school\u201d instead of coming Western. Western gave me a lifetime of experience in just four short years.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it was a rough ride at times, it was definitely one I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t have asked for a better commencement.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[204],"tags":[561,562,322,563],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4457,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/4457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}