A diploma (noun) is defined as: a certificate awarded by an educational establishment to show that someone has successfully completed a course of study.
All across the country hundreds of colleges and universities are holding, and have held, ceremonies that honor the students who have worked and completed the requirements to obtain a degree in their specific study. They have stayed up endless nights studying for their tests and finals, cried in the binds of their textbooks, sucked it up for the group projects they were assigned, and over all worked their asses off for the grades that gave them that very diploma I mentioned earlier.
When students leave high school they have it in their brains that they are going to make it through college in the said four years that it usually takes to do so. But, guess what, it doesn't always happen like that because whether we like it or not, life actually happens.
Believe it or not, less than 40 percent of students graduate in the four years that it takes while almost 60 percent of students graduate within six years of arriving at college.
Over the last weekend, along with the weekend coming up, you are going to see your friend's pictures, announcements, and graduation parties and you are going to be sad because all you can think about is that it should be you. How you should be graduating because it has been those four years since you graduated high school. But let me tell you something, as long as you graduate and get that diploma, that is all that matters. Graduating college isn't a right, it is a privilege and an honor because so many people cannot afford higher education.
You aren't graduating this semester and you might not even be graduating next, but when it is your turn you are going to realize that it was supposed to be this way. You weren't ready before now to take on the big bad world and adult every day from the moment you turn your tassel and throw your hat in the air. Your day will be even sweeter.
We all go through different things and a lot can change in a year, so just imagine how much changes in four years. You might go through a breakup, join Greek life, make Dean's list, go through a tragedy that made you stronger, have a baby, or get engaged. Life has a way of sneaking up on us when we least expect it. I know it did for me but I'm graduating in December and I know having that diploma is the only thing that matters when all is said and done.
For those of us who aren't graduating, we have to keep crying in the binds of our books, studying until sunrise, embracing the group work and hope that our classes take attendance as a grade instead of only three exams. We have to keep on keeping on with tunnel vision until our time. Because it is coming.
