Today, I will be a college graduate. Finally.

All through my adult life, I’ve worn this feeling of being “less than,” a whisper of inadequacy in a world roaring with greater injustices. Still, in the privacy of my own experience, the absence of education…the very chance to claim one, has been a suffocating weight.

Today, I am grateful to God for giving me both the desire to keep learning and the strength and ability to follow that desire wherever it led.

I thank my mom, who walked this road before me and proved, at 60, that beginnings don’t have an age limit. I’m honored to be walking in her footsteps.

I am grateful for my friends and family, who cared enough to read my words and, in doing so, reminded me that my voice matters.

And I am deeply grateful for Sam—whose financial support, quiet sacrifices, and long evenings spent alone while I worked made this chapter of my life possible. His steady encouragement to begin this journey and the simple, priceless refrain of “I’m so proud of you” carried me farther than he knows.

Yes, TODAY, I am proud to say Rock Chalk.