Graduation Ire

(Originally posted on 12/12/08 at 9:30 AM)

So,

Today I am setting a predecent for a "insert my maiden/parents' last name here" in getting a college degree. Although I am working towards Ph.D. ,and this is only 1 of 4 degrees in my future, it is still quite the accomplishment. I've never graduated from anything before. My parents home "schooled" me (handed my the curriculum and answer books so I could teach myself) and refused to even get my my senior year of highschool, which ended up not mattering anyway because they never kept track of my credits. I would have had to get my GED anyway.

Growing up, I was taught that college was a "worldy endeavor" and would be a waste of time "in the Kindom of Heaven". College, education, and science was looked down upon in my family. My parents never asked me what I wanted to do with my life. They just constantly pressured me to be a musician, but would have accepted housewife as equally "honorable". I wanted to be a doctor, my parents tried to force me into the christian music scene. I got a guitar instead of an education. I was told I was supposed to become an "obedient and submitting wife" and not an educated and independent woman.

But somehow, against the odds, I said "Fuck you, mom and dad. I'm going to college," and I moved out, got my GED, and got into college without anyone helping me figure out how this was done (they don't have guidance counselors in home school). And I did it, I am now a college graduate.

So as I walk the stage today, in my honors regalia, with my proud husband and stepson looking on from the audience, I will accept my degree with the knowledge that I fucking earned this moment. And no one can take that away from me, not even my absent parents, who are saving the gas money it would take to see their daughter graduate from college to get them to a "gig" (aka open-mic night) at a coffee house that they play at weekly.

Thanks, mom and dad. I owe none of this to you.