Full Circle

Since our middle son is busy in the military now, I had the privilege of picking up his college diploma this morning. He received an email saying it was ready last week, but we were out of town, and unable to do it. When I tried yesterday, I found out that this was going to require a fax from middle son of his college ID, and a signed note from him that he had given me permission. So, after procuring the said documentation, I trouped back to the offices of administration, records, and registration, took a number, and waited again. This time, I was armed with a email copy of whatall the fax should look like. And the nice lady was able to call back into the bowels of the cubicles for said fax. And thankfully, she recognized him from taking a class with him. Whew. I realized that showing my drivers license does not prove I am his mom, but it does prove we have the same address. I got to sign my name and "for..." and today's date. And she handed it over. That diploma represents four years of our middle son's blood, sweat and late nights of studying. classes. labs. And I think he had perfect attendance, not that they keep track of that kinda thing in college. I don't think middle son ever missed, skipped, or was even late to a class. He finished high school in three years, and entered college that summer, so to finish college in four years shows it IS doable. And we are so proud of him. The bureaucratic nightmares are over.

As I drove away, there was a huge herd of newbies, soon-to-be freshmen clutching orientation plastic bags on a tour of the campus. I resisted the urge to yell something not very ladylike out the window. And I realized we had come full circle.

Some of the liberal-slanted classes required to graduate made college a less than enjoyable experience. Listening to the worst ever graduation speeches made us wonder what we had invited friends and relatives to experience. But, we are done. The mine field successfully navigated. Now we can safely bad-mouth the whole AISD experience. And laugh when the local college asks for more money. We are done contributing. Bitter? No, we just learned the hard way. Would I recommend the local college for someone? Only in the engineering, or nursing venue. Someday, we will ask our middle son if ROTC prepared him properly for whatall he is doing now. Someday, maybe he can go back and make it better, if that is his desire.