I love this time of year. Graduation. All that work culminates into a diploma of some sort. Today was Deeda's Day.. Anita, Deeda is a endearing term I used for her from and early age, graduated with her BA in Nursing. Deeda will tell you that it's taken her longer then any living human to get this degree.
I remember a few conversations about how she just couldn't finish. How being a single mom, work, school, raising a teenager made it just to hard. It had taken to long. How could she ever pass the tests, keep up with the reading, get the classes she needed. It wasn't possible. No one took 15 yrs. to get a degree.
15 yrs. I can't imagine. That my dears is determination. That is a "Never Quit" attitude. That is one of the things I'm so proud of. She had a few good reasons to quit. I won't go into them here, but believe me when I say she could have quit many times and no one would have found fault with it. No She didn't quit. She hung in there and she worked her hiney parts off..
I was blown away by the student speech that was given by another student that took a "few" extra yrs. to get her degree. She was also a single mom. She suffered a heart attack the first year. Then when she returned to school her oldest daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Later a younger child was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. The daughter diagnosed with cancer had it return 3 times. My goodness.. If anyone had a reason to give up school and quit she did, but she didn't. Amazing.
Deeda's mama comes from good stock. She is Husbands Niece. I remember the extra years it took
"mama" to get her degree. Divorced mom, raising two kids, the list goes one. I remember the night she laid in the middle of her living room floor with her math book and screamed. "I can't do this".. She sobbed for an hour. She did it. She graduated. She wanted her kids to know that hard work and determination would get you someplace in this world. Deeda learned that lesson well.
One of Husband's favorite quotes to tell our girls when they were young and they wanted to quit was this.
"Quitters never did anything". He is so right.
Today it was so wonderful to be part of the celebration. A celebration of 15 long hard years of work.
I am so proud of you Deeda. So proud of the woman you have become, and so proud of the role model you are to you children. Three cheers for you dear one.
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