Con'grad'ulations!

Tomorrow is what would have been my graduation day from nursing school. I am planning to go to the ceremony, but I will not be one of the names called. My final round has been slightly delayed.

I have spent a lot of the past couple of months comforting people on MY failure to complete school this semester. It is really ok. I am in a different place. I have been here before. This degree will be another notch on my belt, and I am already in the works of setting up the next one.

I am truly, 100% ok with all of this. I have worn the silly outfit and posed for pitcures. My name has been mispronounced and I have shaken hands with big wigs of the colleges I attended. My previous diplomas are packed away and their evidence is accessed only in the form of an occasional transcript request.

I am, however, so proud of the individuals who WILL have their names mispronounced, while shaking hands in a silly outfit tomorrow. For many of my nursing schoolmates, this is their first time as a college graduate. They will officially be able to refer to themselves as college graduates. And that is what tomorrow is all about.

It is not about the long nights of studying and countless hours spent scouring patient charts. It is not about passing all of the exams and jumping through hoops and attending seminars. It is about the pride that went into it and your final prize, your diploma.

And my unsolicited advice to all of them?? Enjoy the day. Remember that it is not all about you, but also the family and friends who loved and supported you through it. While this day feels HUGE right now, it will eventually fade into a distant memory. But nobody can ever take this away from you. You earned it. You persevered through what you may have at times considered impossible.

Finally, this is ONLY a beginning. No matter where your journey to here began, this day is not the end of anything. It is a new beginning and a new journey lies ahead. I hope the journey is smooth and leads where you hoped it would. But always remember, no matter what, you did THIS.