Journey to Graduation: The Typical and the Not So Typical

Graduation Time: the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another.
May this be the beginning of the best journey of your life!

May is the Month for all the End-of-School things and GRADUATIONS!

This is the month that, for many, dreams and goals and toil and study achieve results.

The end of one chapter in life,

and the start of another.

Someone said you never miss school until after you graduate.

Better said, perhaps, is we’ll never miss school because we always believe we have more to learn. That each day is a chance to learn something and we never really graduate from the school of life.

The Journey to Graduation

begins with that very first day of school. You, wearing a backpack half your size and a smile wider than the Gulf of Texas. Mom, walking you to the classroom, wearing a brave and over-bright smile. Is that a bit of glitter in the corner of her eyes?

You show up in your shiny new clothes and then you put in the days.

Days of triumphs, and days of tears.

And every day, every year, one more step closer to the shining goal.

Most students end this journey with graduation; first from grade school, then high school.

However, about 20%* of those who spend their days and years trying to attain that coveted diploma won’t make it. Or will spend more than the usual 12 years to acquire it. They’ll spend far more than the typical amount of time, toil, triumphs and tears. Working to beat the odds.  Seeing a long road that seems impossible to negotiate. Climbing far more hills and descending deeper valleys than the average student.

These deserve special recognition when they hang in there and finally get their hands on that diploma.

But guess what?

They don’t want that.  They don’t want special recognition. Because all their lives they have worked hard to fit in, to be average, to be like their peers, and when they walk across that stage and shake the presenter’s hand, they want to be just like “everyone else.”  No extra cheers.  No louder hand claps.

Just the quiet, inner-joy feeling

THAT THEY MADE IT!

Just like the main-stream students they tried to channel during the long learning years of their lives.

The Story of one Special Student’s Graduation Journey

If you’ve read more than one post on this blog, you know that the Kim girl behind Kim+INK has High Performing Autism. We realize that her journey isn’t the same as all spectrum students on their way through school. While she had to leave school and enroll again, and then repeat the steps again, others may have to work harder and spend even more years. 

So no matter what your journey involved, honor this day.  Take the credit coming to you after a great effort.  Lift your head high, give yourself a loud cheer, because you deserve it.

And so…  To all of you…

who are graduating after a typical journey,

who are graduating after extra years of striving,

or those who can’t march across the stage in a gown due to anxiety, etc.,

this post is for you!

Congratulations on Your Graduation
and
Best Wishes on the Rest of Your Learning Journey

May this be the First Day
of the Best Days of Your Life!