Graduated

Before I started this adventure in capturing my Bachelors Degree, many people told me how fast the time would fly by. Tomorrow, I'll walk to Pomp and Circumstance one more time as I received my Bachelors Degree. I can tell you now.. that time did not fly by. Education is not something that has ever come easy to me. Truth be told, I'm an awful student. I have ADD tendencies, I have a little fits of dyslexia.. I hate school. It was 1999 when I was told I'd be lucky to graduate high school and would never receive a college diploma, certainly not a Bachelors. It was 2005 when I graduated with an Associates in Radio/TV Production and Broadcasting. Even then, the thought of returning to school for a Bachelors was blasphemy. I wanted nothing to do with that conversation and those thoughts quickly escaped my mind.

Though truth be told, I've had some great mentors in my life. Both of them women. Growing up, I watched my sister Ann put herself through college and work towards her own Bachelors. I always looked up to her through the years. Though I guess for part of it you could say it was a bit of a sibling rivalry. But, she was always "the smart one." I always saw her as the best, the one with the degree and I very much doubted for many years that I'd ever be as smart or as good as her. And then there's Sarah who in 2007, Graduated from UNH herself with an Associates and a Bachelors. As I listened to Pomp and Circumstance that day and joined in on the celebration, I was incredibly jealous of her. However, this time I had been accepted into UNH all ready and my journey for a Bachelors would soon begin.

Four years later I'll walk down the aisle at graduation after putting myself through school. I'm broke as a joke. Aside from the student loans I owe, I'm another 10 Grand in debt easily, all accrued from my own personal struggles (in other words: medical bills) I dealt with along the way. This journey over the last four years has been harder for me then any ultra I've ever run or any mountain I've ever climbed. Though I guess you could kinda compare the journey for a Bachelors as climbing a mountain or running a long race. I'm tired... yet proud.

Tomorrow, I'm graduating with a Bachelors in Outdoor Education with a Concentration in Hospitality Recreation Management. On May 31st, I'll begin my internship in Boulder, Colorado working for a guide company. For work I'll be backpacking, hiking, climbing, biking, running and rafting.. my dream job in my dream location. It was 2006 when I stood in Boulder looking up at the Flat Irons knowing I wanted to live there and knowing what kind of work I wanted to do while there. I'm not a chaser of some-days, I'm a doer.. and I'll be doing once again what I set out to accomplish.

There are many I need to thank for their support though, here is not the place to do this. For now, the celebration will commence followed by the long journey West. With luck, and safe travels; I'll be posting to you next week from my new home in Louisville, CO. In the 10 years that Sarah and I have been together, one of us has always been enrolled as a full time student at the University of New Hampshire. I don't think we can get far enough way but in traveling 2000 miles west, we've picked a hell of a location to plant our roots. Though I'll say it now... the real lesson in all of this.. is that once again I sought out a goal which I was told I could not do. I sincerely hope that at some point in my life... the words of doubt will be silenced for good...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain