Thirteen years later…

The dust has finally settled from all of the high school and college graduations for the 2024-25 school year and as I see parents and students posting graduation photos and seeing our annual graduation special section come together, it made me think back to my time in high school and college.

May 31 marked 13 years since I graduated Newberry High School. Y’all can do the math on how old that makes me now haha. It’s crazy to think it’s been that long and I can thank Facebook Memories for reminding me the other day – a typical high school text-style post that said “Cant believe we’re graduating tomorrow!!! 2morrows gonna b a good day. C/O 2012!!!!” At first glance, I couldn’t believe it’s been 13 years. On the other hand, who let me become a journalist with that kind of spelling? Just kidding, but haven’t we all spelled like that at some point? To be honest, when I’m interviewing someone I’ll jot my notes down like this.

I also thought back to my own graduation day. My sister took me on a girls day and I got my hair done before the ceremony. Then I stood for the seemingly hundreds of photos taken before and after the ceremony. And as any teenager would enjoy, I was more than grateful to all of the family and neighbors who sent cards and money as a graduation gift.

I walked across the stage a second time when I graduated Newberry College in 2016 (go Wolves). May 7 will mark nine years since I checked off that accomplishment. I often pass campus since my parents still live that way and can occasionally hear the wolf howl during football season when I’m visiting my parents. Having lived so close to campus, my parents definitely saved some money on tuition since I was able to make the less than five minute commute to and from class. Sometimes my mom and I would walk from our house to the football games – that’s how close we lived.

I enjoyed my time at both Newberry High School and Newberry College. I made many friends and although we don’t see each other as frequently as we did in school, we all still keep in touch via social media. There were a lot of fun, amazing times and also the occasional difficult times (I’m giving serious side-eye to the 13+ page papers I had to write). A big piece of advice I would give is to get involved on campus and ALWAYS print out the class syllabus!

So to all the recent graduates, whether you’re going straight into the workforce, planning to take summer classes or starting classes in the fall, hang in there and most importantly, congratulations on graduating. Next step? Graduating college!