This past May, after four years of endless due dates, coffee-powered mornings, and way too much pizza, I walked across my university’s huge stage, shook the hand of our president, grabbed my diploma case (sans diploma to keep me from running off with fashionable regalia) and exited down the stage steps.[Insert screeching halt sound effect here.] Wait, that was it?!

Four years of hard work and lots of blood, sweat and very literal tears culminated in a 30 second blip of a dazed walk across a stage. At first, I was disappointed. I had waited for . . . dreamed . . . of that day for so long. From the time I was probably 8, I knew I wanted to go to college and envisioned myself on graduation day, happily holding my diploma for the world to see. I imagined the cheers, the jubilation, the confetti, and in my dreams it just went on and on and on.

In reality, it was 30 seconds roughly from the time I climbed the stairs on one side and exited on the other. I felt happy, but there certainly wasn’t any confetti and I couldn’t even tell where my family was sitting in a room of 7,000+ people. But once I climbed down and sat in my seat again for the remainder of the ceremony, it all began to sink in. I was a college graduate. I was going to hold a diploma in a little while (again, as soon as I returned my attractive regalia). I had completed one of my greatest life goals. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that my moment in the spotlight had lasted for 30 brief seconds. I had graduated college with a degree in a field I’m extremely passionate about. I accomplished something only a fraction of people in this country do.

No amount of time, or lack thereof, can take that sense of pride away from me.

You might also be interested in:

1. Students want freedom after graduation, but life’s hard