This is me ten years ago today – April 27, 2002.
I graduated from Fort Lewis College, a tiny liberal arts school in Durango, Colorado. I wish I could say I graduated with honors, but I can’t, because I was only there for my senior year and even though I had good grades, I wasn’t eligible because I didn’t complete my last 60 credit hours there. I still feel like that was a pretty crappy rule, especially since I had a ridiculous course load thanks to being obligated to do all these basic courses that my last school didn’t require. Yep, I got to take “Exercise Science” with all the 18-year-olds. It was awesome. Because of that, the two P.E. classes I had to take, and the über-boring mandatory geology class (oh, remind me to tell you about that sometime), I had to get special permission from the dean to enroll in more than 16 hours a semester. Because people, there was no need for my college education to run into a fifth year. I was SO ready to move on with my life at this point. After pleading my case to the dean, I did 38 hours in two semesters; 20 in the fall and 18 in the spring.
By graduation day, I was engaged and planning a summer wedding.
I remember two things about graduation:
- We lined up outside the facility beforehand. We were all shivering because IT WAS SNOWING.
- I anticipated an hours-long ceremony similar to my high school graduation, with hundreds of names being called one after the other. In reality, there might have been 50 of us. We took up three rows of seats.
Fort Lewis was a weird experience for me, and if I had it to do all over again, I probably wouldn’t go there. On my first or second day of classes, I was walking across campus in front of two young guys. One of them was telling the other about how he’d really struggled with his math homework because he “took one too many hits on [his] bong last night.” I’m kind of surprised I kept it together and didn’t pass out right then and there, but basically, that statement pretty much sums up my year at FLC: I never really fit in.
Anyway, it all turned out fine in the end. I got my degree and that’s what counts.
Happy Friday to you!
The Seifipour Family 