The best graduation gift.

I had no interest in walking the stage at graduation. I would have been perfectly happy to simply get my diploma in the mail -- that's what happens anyway, you don't get your diploma when you walk across the stage. They mail it to you after the fact. A huge part of the reason I did is because I know my dad wanted me to.

At my high school graduation
Walking to where all the graduates were supposed to meet on the morning of graduation, I was thinking about how nice it was that everyone was up for the graduation. I was thinking about how great it was going to be to see Cody and Hailey, and my step-mom and my dad and... wait... no... And then there were tears. In my cap and gown, cold in the 40-ish degree weather, tears formed in my eyes and threatened to fall down my face and ruin the make-up my best friend had done for me. Oh, please, please do not cry right now! I begged of myself. I stopped and took a minute to breathe. I looked up at the clear blue sky, and knew he was there watching me. I don't know how I knew, but he was there. I could feel it. And he was proud of me.

When I could breathe normally again, I put on a smile - I was GRADUATING! - and went the rest of the short walk over to the library. I ran into a few friends and chatted for a few minutes, but I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you what the conversations had been about. At that point, I was more focused on not crying than I was on the conversations I was having.

Finally, we were pretty much lined up and the ceremony was beginning. Once more, during the ceremony, I felt tears in my eyes, but refused to let them fall. I kept looking up at the sky, knowing he was there. I know he laughed at the joke our SGA president made about not having to work a stripper pole now that we have college degrees. I know he was rolling his eyes, annoyed, at that one guy's unnecessarily long speech. I know he was cheering with the rest of my family when I walked across the stage. I know he was there afterwards, when we were taking pictures and I was annoyed because I wanted to be anywhere else.

We went out to dinner as a family that night and I got cards and graduation gifts. The best graduation gift I got, the best I could have ever asked for, came from my step mom. A necklace with my dad's thumbprint on it. I know he's always with me, but now I have something tangible. Something I can carry with me. And I couldn't have asked for anything better - because nothing would have been better.


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