I didn’t think I’d get the graduation I did. I’m so used to impromptu ceremonies, belated certificates and atypical life in general that when I went to the waiting area, I thought it was the full event. I only found out by the time they were starting to call graduates up.

As a Liberal Arts major, we had the largest graduating class by far. I’ve no doubt the STEM grads enjoyed feeling like the special club, but there wasn’t any ill will between any of us. Years of work, of life all focused on this one goal? It was impossible to feel bad about conquering it all.

I graduated with some really impressive people, a sentiment shared by most every graduating class I’m sure. Magna cum laude, summa cum laude, perfect students with rich lives lived and richer still walked the stage. More than a few published authors, no older than their mid 20s. Then me, and the rest of the ‘hey I passed’ club. The old me would’ve felt small, like I cheated somehow to get there. The actual me? Man, I was happy that I didn’t trip on the way up.

I bought my pictures like I promised my mother, my stepmother and everyone else; then with my diploma in hand I found my family. Dad first and his fiance, then my stepmom, then my mom and uncle. My sister was there too; that I was particularly happy about. We get along well, but we see each other so infrequently that I treasure the times we’re all together. It was also the first time in years my parents met face-to-face, and with good reason. But there wasn’t any bad blood, and it was honestly more meaningful than I thought possible to have a photo of me and both of them together. It was also the first time my uncle saw them all, putting faces to names I’ve mentioned before.

It’s hard for me to say that I deserved such a happy day. Ultimately, I have to accept that regardless of if I deserved it or not—it still happened. That memory’s mine, and it’s up to me if I make it a memory I look back on to remember happier times, or if it’s a memory marking the start of a better life than the one I’ve led up to that point.

Bidding farewell to my graduation friends and my mentor, I hopped in the car and went about enjoying the week that followed. My family was in town for the whole time, so I lived in emotional bliss. My stepmom and I had a conversation long overdue, my Dad and I talked about life face-to-face for the first time since I told him I had to leave and came back home. So many relatives of mine, all wishing me well…and then to top it all, after everyone went back home? A few days later I got to go to a New Year’s Eve wedding in my brand new suit. God, I felt like a million bucks. I even danced (badly). Like I said earlier, I don’t know if I deserved all these opportunities or not—but I sure enjoyed them. Then, on the first day of this fine year I woke up. Now began my effort to make all this good fortune mean something.