Today while I was doing a “spring cleaning” type of gutting out some old boxes of assorted memories, I came across a thick, navy blue, engraved cover to a thick piece of paper, dust smeared into its leather creases.

It was my high school diploma.

At first glance my heart dropped to the floor in disgust. I felt its weight in the palm of my hands, and I was reunited with the heaviness of my feelings from the past.

High school never was my favorite, nor was it the grandest years of my life. It held so much pain, confusion, insecurity and searching. I struggled so much with who I was or thought I was, what I wanted, the lack of finances to pursue extracurricular activities, dealing with rejection from the multitude and feeling like I didn’t have very many friends. That was what high school pain amounted to me.

I looked at that diploma in my hands, a supposed symbol of success and accomplishment, and I accounted it as nothing.

How many of us when we graduated felt like we basically barely passed by the hair on our chinny-chin-chins?

I listened as I heard classmates talk of all the different classes they were taking, how they were dual-enrolled at a community college, how many credits it all accounted for, the big name college they would be attending in the fall, while I sat thinking I wasn’t smart at all, that I was taking the very minimal amount of classes just to get by, learning things I knew I would never need outside of the classroom. Account it to my low self-esteem, account it to my low self-confidence, account it to finances, account it to not understanding what I read in textbooks, but I thought I had failed somewhere.

Guys, I knew those things were lies I told myself, but I thought I wouldn’t graduate. That wasn’t true, I knew it wasn’t. I got good grades, I tried my best at everything, I read and watched what I was supposed to, and I did all the teachers told me to do. By all those accounts I knew that I would graduate with some form of honors, but I didn't feel all that successful or accomplished.

I graduated high school three years ago. I didn’t go to a four-year college or community college right after, and because of it I felt like a failure and unaccomplished. In the grand scheme of things I thought it would amount to nothing in the future. I graduated high school like millions of young Americans do every year, and because I didn't follow the norm for college I felt like I was viewed as unaccomplished and unsuccessful. The value of graduating was tainted by my idea of success, accomplishment, and comparison to other grads.

Then I remembered the evening that I walked across that stage to shake a hand and be handed that new, clean, engraved document. In that moment I breathed. In that moment for the few seconds that it took to walk that distance in front of so many people, I was given and felt victory.

I DID that. I DID. I GRADUATED high school. (By the blessed help of Jesus I did, thank God.) I fought for something when all hope seemed lost. I pushed onward when I wanted to give up. I accomplished what many aspiring students in other countries cannot say or do because they cannot even financially afford that. I was given the gift of an education. And I accomplished it by receiving a diploma to say I graduated

I know it may not actually seem like a lot, but for me it is. I think we need to find joy in the seemingly small victories we make every day, because they are victories. My small victory is that I did graduate and I have had an education. (Maybe it's because I'm three years out and need to be reminded what I have accomplished despite how my future after high school played out.)

It is monumental. It is a big deal. Not just three years ago, but today as well.

Same goes for you high school graduate. If that means you graduated this year, last year, the year before that, or 10 years ago. You did it. Even if that means you dropped out early on, but you went back. Even if it means you just got a GED. Even if it means you haven’t gone to college just yet like me. You did that thing back then. Who cares what a small victory that may seem to be.

You FINISHED. You ARE accomplished.

Who cares how you got there. Who cares how you got here, where you are right now.

Who cares what classes you took or didn’t take.

Who cares what the grades were, or if you went to a four year college right afterwards, or if you're still waiting to discover that next step.

What matters right now, in this moment, is that you HAVE accomplished something. You still have time, there's no pressure to jump right in to college or have it all figured out, and you still have the potential to start over now and chase new dreams!

And when you later feel like you’ve accomplished nothing in life, get out that diploma and put it in a place where you can see it awhile until you remember.

Relish it. Smile about it. Embrace it.

That is your reminder that you DID do it. You DID. You accomplished something.

And you can do it again. So keep going.