Beating the Bucket List: Graduating College

I graduated college, and they “knowed me up really good like.”. I am a member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2001. I have a bachelor of science in Economics. Typing that, or even saying it in my head sounds pretty pretentious. I didn’t want to be one of those folks who hung up all that diplomas and licenses on the walls and spoke with an affected accent as do so many folks do when you’re watching movies about Harvard and Yale.

I went to school. That’s what I thought you did actually. It was just like grades 13-16 happened, and I just kept on going after high school and completed them. I thought that’s just what you were supposed to do as the mid-90s high school kid who wanted a job later on. Both of my parents didn’t have degrees, it didn’t make them any less smart in my book – nor did me having a degree entitle me to something more than the ability to say “I have a degree” if it was a part of a job description’s requirements. It was just fulfilling another check box.

But, it does comprise one of the things that was on my bucket list. I did want to be a college graduate. My parents never made me get good grades. That’s not to say that they didn’t take an interest, they just never put some sort of punishment attached to bad grades or forcing me to do awesome less it ruin their outlook on my life. They just thought I was smart, let me know and then let me go do my thing. I loved school – all types – and even now, I love new training and learning new things. My job as a market researcher has been amazing, and I learn new things every day – I think that’s how it should be really. Always learning, always absorbing and understanding the world around you – and more so, how to make it a better place.

Looking at this picture of me graduating now validates my lifelong dream to make the world a better place. I learned a lot in college – both in books and off the shelf, and I’m a much better person for it. I met lifelong friends there that taught me lessons about the worlds I hadn’t yet been exposed to at the time. My mind is expanded and transformed because of my experiences there, and I’m proud to have gone. Not for the paper that it afforded me, but to the doors it opened up for me.