Worth the wait

This past weekend I was able to make a quick trip down to Bozeman for a special occasion. My sister, after graduating from high school in 2000, finally graduated from college.

This past weekend I was able to make a quick trip down to Bozeman for a special occasion. My sister, after graduating from high school in 2000, finally graduated from college.

As a family we wanted to make it into a big deal, because it was a big deal. It was a long path to my sister's graduation that was filled with different colleges, time off from school and a lot of hard work.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I like to give my sister a hard time since I beat her to the punch of graduating from college. I gave her a card in which I wrote "here's to a decade of learning," but the truth is that the more difficult the journey the sweeter the reward. For instance, because of how hard the journey was for her to get her diploma, I know that that little piece of paper is going to be more important to her than mine will ever be to me.

Now you may not understand how hard it was for my sister to graduate, but when she started the tedious job of attaining her bachelor's degree she was a single mother and she would be the first to say that the statistics prove that a single mother graduating from college is a near impossibility.

However, she was determined to defy the odds and grab the little piece of paper that would help her and her son be more financially secure in the future. (She has since married and had another daughter).

Now I don't want to take anything away from the other graduates last weekend, but it is a lot more difficult to juggle the college life while having to take care of a family alongside studying for school and working a part-time or full-time job.

My own example is that I never go shopping unless it's for food, but this weekend my family also celebrated my three-year-old niece's birthday party. Now for people that love to shop and spend a lot of their time walking the aisles, searching for deals and swiping credit cards, it may be no big deal to get your niece a birthday gift.

However, as I keep telling my sister, I really went above and beyond my own capabilites. I didn't just pick my niece up one outfit, but two outfits. (I also bought my nephew a new griz sweatshirt, which is extra satisfying, because he lives in Bozeman.)

I mentioned this, because of how proud I am of my accomplishment of successfully buying my niece two outfits, which turned out to fit and look good at the same time. I have pride in this because it was so difficult, even though my sisters just rolled their eyes at me when I told them how proud I was.

In these terms I am sure my sister feels exactly the same, although admittedly her weekend might turn out to be a little bit more important than mine.

At the end of the day as my sister walked onto the stage in the giant Bobcat basketball stadium to grab her diploma, more than actually seeing her graduate it was more special to see her tearing up as she shook the dean's hand. She was so happy with herself for sticking with college through all the hard times, defying everyone else's expectations and paving the way to a better future for herself.