My Graduation

 

The night started off rather childishly

I really didn’t get it

All day long I was dreading going to the ceremony.

 

It just isn’t my style

 

When we got there

Mandy took some pictures

We posed and made jokes

 

We finally got to the stage.

 

Standing there waiting to sit down almost killed me

It hurt so bad

But I just forced myself to do it.

I knew the pain would be worth it.

 

Finally we sat down.

 

As the evening progressed

And I saw Mr. Ben Cooper sitting on stage in front of me

I kind of got choked up

He is somebody that I see in a different light than others

 

I also saw a man that I didn’t recognize sitting right in front of me

 

And then there was Dr. Dawe, Ron Helm and Dr. DeLong

They were sitting right in front of me

On the very same stage that I was on.

 

These men were sitting on the same stage

as this ole hood rat son of a Heroin dealing Junky

 

Then the man that I had never seen before stood up and walked to the podium.

It was Senator Broadway

 

I was on the stage with a senator.

 

What’s more

The Senator talked about his cousin being a bank robber

 

My blood grandparents were bank robbers

It put him and I in the same place

 

That doesn’t mean were equals

That means that at one point

we were both something other than we are now

 

That really hit me in the gut.

 

I also know that Mr. Cooper wasn’t always rich

I know where he came from

And where he is now.

 

The senator talked about being a role model to children

 

Being a former Marine

I connected with that completely

 

Something started to transform the night

 

It became more than the sum of its parts

 

I was hoping that I would get to shake Mr. Cooper’s hand

It didn’t even seem logical that a former hood rat like me would get to shake a senator’s hand

 

I shook both of their hands tonight

And the senator said that I looked like a professor already.

 

I always thought how cool it would be

to be a professor with a long white beard,

shaping young minds

 

The senator saying that made it almost real.

 

I don’t know what my future is

But I do know that I want to give people something

I want to shape lives

Whether it is in the education field

Or just in my everyday life

I want to make a difference

 

It was nice to see the Ozarka staff all dressed up in robes

It was really cool

There are so many people there that I look up to

 

Tonight started out so small

But it got so big

 

It truly is the end of a chapter

And the beginning of a new one.

 

I’m no longer just a former hood rat

I’m a college graduate