In May I had the unique experience of attending two college graduations in one week. I had completed my classwork at my community college in May 2017. Due to a multitude of circumstances, which I can look back on and smile about now, I had not submitted my petition for graduation in time to attend the May 2017 graduation ceremony. While finishing off the last few weeks of my Associate degrees two through five, I started my bachelor's degree program May 7, 2017.

Fast forward 10 months and 30 college units later I found myself petitioning for my bachelor's degree and graduation. I found myself with two graduations in May 2018. Even more humorous to me was the fact my university graduation was scheduled for the Saturday before my community college graduation the following Friday. Having skipped my first community college graduation in May 2015, I fully intended to skip these two.

And then the email came. In addition to graduation, I was invited to the university's Academic Awards Ceremony the night before my graduation. It seems I had or was one of the students with the highest GPA in my program. So, I jumped through a multitude of hoops, got on the plane and went to the East coast for both. It was a stressful, exciting, exhausting, and exhilarating experience. One I'm glad to have done but even happier to never do again.

After a cross-country trip, it was good to be home. My community college graduation seemed like an easy, experience to end the week. Because Saturday I planned on sleeping.

Being just a few miles away, my community college graduation was without the extra costs and stress of travel and time zone issues. Being a smaller ceremony with local students, the college held a ceremony rehearsal the morning of the big event. I let work know I would be in late and leaving early. They were happy to oblige.

It wasn't until we started walking onto the field that I started to notice the difference between the two ceremonies. There were little things such as more families, bigger families cheering the students as they walked in. With the university graduation, it was held in an arena, not on a football field. Because the ceremony was for the online programs, it felt as if there were fewer families and family members cheering for the students as they walked in.

They were both broadcasts, but there were minor differences in the other technology utilized. It's a different experience to know that your name is being displayed on a big monitor as you receive your diploma. The university had every level of a student graduating together from Master's, Bachelors to Associates.

Honestly, those were the little differences. The biggest difference didn't strike me until we were a third of the way through our community college ceremony. That's when I started to notice graduates who had already walked across the stage, get up and walk out. At first, it was just a few. But as the ceremony went on, they started exiting in groups.

For those of us who staid, the most amazing thing happened at the end of the ceremony. The faculty formed "the gauntlet." They talked about it at rehearsal, I didn't fully understand what it meant until it happened. All the faculty present, several hundred of them, formed a tunnel for the graduates to exit through. They cheered us on, gave hugs and high-fives. For me, it was the best part of everything. It was better than walking across the stage at the arena summa cum laude or walking across any of the stages. It was personal, it was heartfelt, it was real.

For all the students tempted to walk out before the end of your graduation, ask yourself why? After everything, it took to get to that point, see it to the end. You owe it to yourself, and you owe it to your fellow students who sat there and watched your moment. Have some class. Have some respect. Stay for theirs, and just maybe, you will find inspiration in the end.

That's all the graduation stories for now. I promise I won't write about graduations again until I finish my master's program.