May

19

Pomp and Circumstance

Posted by Little Miss Know it All

May 19, 2007 |

Graduation is finally here!

To understand the importance of this day to me, you must understand that today is a day 18 years in the making. 

I started college in 1989, a fresh-faced 17 year old girl four hundred miles from home at Queens College in Charlotte, NC.  It was an amazing year at Queens, full of self discovery, sorority sisters, first love, and an independence born out of newfound freedoms.

Then I promptly flunked out.

I’ll be honest, I had a little TOO much fun in Charlotte.  For years I was mortified at flunking out–and I flunked out on attendance policies alone.  My grades were fine until the attendance policy kicked in.  But that year at Queens, I stretched my wings and learned how to, well, how to fall out of the nest.  Yet it was a good fall, full of mistakes, pain and tears, but one that gave me the surety that I would try to fly again.

And try again I did.  Again, and again.  I went to JCC, a community college in Louisville where I discovered the difference between liking a job (teaching) and having a passion for your life’s work.  JCC is where I discovered my passion for international politics.  From there I went to NKU, moving to Northern KY in 1994.  I studied more international politics, and was introduced to journalism and public relations.  NKU was a turning point in my life, in more ways than one.  From there I had my first political job, working in a Senator’s office, and then on to a Congressional Campaign.  Even more life changing, it was at NKU that I met Mr Know it All, my future husband and the love of my life.  

A few years later in 1998, I was newly married and moving to Evansville, IN.  I enrolled at the University of Evansville between campaign gigs, studying Public Relations and Governmental Politics.  I left UofE when my first child came along.

I am a lover of learning–I really do enjoy just learning stuff.  So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when I felt pulled to enroll in VLI–but it was.  It had been five years since I’d been in school, and I was as befuddled as the rest as to why I felt so pulled towards a degree in ministry.  Knowing my track record, I was pretty sure something would come around and distract me before I finished.

But it didn’t.  Here I stand almost two years later, and graduation is this weekend.  I have the craziest college transcript–over 90 hours from five different institutions.  There are credits in spanish and french, journalism, early childhood education, european politics, medical ethics, Hitchcock films, Paris, public relations and public administration, church planting, hermanuetics, missions, and all the books of the Bible.  I have been a flunkie and an honors program student, barely passing and a proud honor roll student.

And while I technically have four more weeks of classes, today I become a graduate.

Even better, a graduate of a program that has shaped me in ways I doubt I fully comprehend yet.   I now have a driving passion in my life, to fuel the fire in followers of Christ.  I have a glimpse of what that means for me, but the excitement of what God has in store for me, after all the resources, amazing teaching and incredible mentors he has given me through VLI, is something I cannot quite define.  I know that for now it is a step at a time, a journey on a road that I cannot quite see the end of.  While graduation seems like the end of the road, I know that it is only the beginning. And to me, I love surprises, as frustrating as they are. I am so excited for what is to come.

So now, if you see Little Miss Know it All this weekend and I’m a blubbering mess, excuse me. Its been 18 years to get to this day. I know its not a lot of pomp and circumstance at our sweet little graduation, and I like it that way.  Yet I still cannot quite believe that I’ve done it!


Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. James on May 21, 2007 11:45 am

    Wow, an 18 year senior. Congratulations.

  2. John on May 21, 2007 11:46 am

    Just think, when you started college, this years current incoming class was just being born?!?!?!
    All the best, at least you finished.

  3. Little Miss Know it All on May 21, 2007 1:30 pm

    Not helping, Mr Pearce.

  4. Batocchio on May 24, 2007 3:23 pm

    Congratulations!

    It’s said the college is a wonderful experience wasted on teenagers, and college students are typically the only breed of consumers who don’t try to get the most for their money. All the more reason I bet you look both fetching and classy in your cap and gown.

    Now you really are Little Miss Know It All!

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