Today marks ten years since I graduated from high school. Ironically I will be spending today at my first high school graduation as a teacher. I think that just makes my memories all the more profound. I can still remember that feeling right before I walked into my ceremony. I actually cried. I know my classmates thought I was crazy. They were all so happy to be done. All I knew was that everything in my life was about to change.

Reflections

You see, in one week I would turn eighteen and a day later I would be leaving home to spend six weeks on a college campus. I spent over twelve years spending every school day in the same building with the same people. I had no idea what “tomorrow” would bring, literally. It’s crazy to think that those defining moments were a decade ago. Some days it feels like it was only yesterday. During that time I learned a lot, not only academically, but more so about people. I also tried many new things. During that summer I rode a roller coaster for the first time, worked in an inner city

school for the first time, and learned how to navigate through college.

In the decade since then, I spent five years earning two college degrees and worked at three schools for the other five years. I started a relationship, got married, have been pregnant twice, and had three healthy baby girls. That just about summarizes my life in numbers.

In the past few months I have reflected many times on how I have changed. There have been both good and bad changes. Through working with kids, I have seen many situations that taught me to have compassion and be more understanding. Many of the students I taught came from tough backgrounds and it was easy to see why they acted they way they did. This gave me a good perspective of how blessed I was to be raised in a loving, hard-working, God-fearing home.

A Word to Graduates

This past decade has shaped who I am today. If I were to be giving a graduation speech today, I would tell the students to do something their future self would be proud to remember. I could look back on my days of college and remember the times that I didn’t spend with friends because I had mounds of homework. I could remember the loneliness I felt living on campus and being true to the standards I set for myself. I could even remember the bad grades and difficult interactions with teachers. Instead I choose to remember the day a random student and I ended up at the same table in the dining hall and we decided to stay and chat together. I choose to remember the feeling that I felt when I first walked onto the campus at UMBC and I knew it was where I was meant to be.

I would also tell them to dare to be different. Not in a “its trendy to do something crazy” kind of way. But in a way that fits the goal that you are working towards. Don’t go to college just because your friends are going. Go to college because it will prepare you for the job you want, or get an apprenticeship to earn a trade, or join the military to serve and protect our country. Whatever you do, do it because it’s best for you.

In this season of graduations, what would you say to someone who was graduating?

Martina