To my brother (and graduating college seniors):
Wow. You’re doing it. Tomorrow, you walk across Ball State’s commencement stage and gain a college diploma. Your family is going to be there, and while I have considered (and dismissed) the idea of sounding an air horn with Dad as you walk across in order to show my great pride for you, I’ve decided to take a different route.
You’ve been a constant presence in my mind as I go through my college experience since you went off to school first. I knew that college wasn’t going to be a breeze academically, but you seemed to be in a place where you fit in somewhere and were happy. I was looking forward to finding that sense of community as well. I was excited to learn. I wondered what you were doing on a university campus compared to a small liberal arts college and the adventures you were having and the people you were with.
I hoped you had good friends, real friends that support you and wouldn’t leave you. I hoped you’d find something you were passionate about. I hoped you would find a time of your life that you would be able to look back upon fondly, at least for the most part. You deserve to have good memories of a place in which you spent five years.
Of course, not everything has been easy. All-nighters pulled in the library in desperation to pass a test; tedious teachers who grade unfairly and who you rip apart in class evaluations; fights between friends, breakups, anger and tears along the way: all of it was part of the whole College Experience©.
You’ve spent a percentage of your life at Ball State and in Muncie, and I hear you’re planning on staying and getting ahead with the jobs you already have. That’s so exciting, and I hope that works out for you. I also hope you aren’t staying in Muncie because you feel you have nowhere else to go.
I’ve had some of my best friends graduate this year, and it was incredibly hard to say goodbye to them. I know that for them, some of them were ready to leave Albion behind and head off into the Unknown; others aren’t, and that’s fine too. Graduating from an institution of higher education is a huge milestone. It’s a time for you to go do anything, that terrifying place that is forward without a set structure.
This is such a huge, exciting time in your life. Try something new. Be honest with yourself and do what you want to do. Maybe school wasn’t the thing you wanted to do forever – it isn’t for most people. Now you’re done. The education phase of your life could be at a close if you so wish. So go do something! Do something you haven’t done before, something that makes you feel excited and alive.
You are so brave and so strong for making it. It inspires me to reach out for my own diploma. I can’t wait to see you cross that stage. If you hear someone yelling YEAH!!, it’s probably me.
Love, your little sister.
