Graduation

In that moment you are at a loss for words.

The only thing that seems sure is the smile on your face and the nervous shake in your leg. Will I trip across the stage? Will they say my name wrong?

Take another step.

The loud eruption for the girl who sat in the row in front of you begins; the noises from her family are drowned out by the loud beatings of your heart. You don’t remember who is not there; you only know that you are there.

Take another step.

The day you could not even fathom four years ago in your freshman dormitory with your weird roommate is here.

Take another step.

The feeling of the stage hits you on your left foot, the cool rail hits your right hand.

Take another step.

Shirley Ann Bolden, they have called your name. You at this moment become the essence of unlived potential. No one writes the story from here on out except for you. With a fake diploma in your hand you have made it.

Before you take another step, know that this one is different. You now take this step with the backing of education, potential, adulthood as the foundation below you.

Imagine what can be built above this foundation, anything, everything. This was the most important brick; everything else is at liberty of the designer.