I graduated on August 7, 2015. I. Graduated. Ahh! My family and friends made the trek to Abilene, Texas so I could walk across the stage and become Wylijanna Cole, M.Ed. I am forever grateful for the experience. I come away with a wealth of knowledge and skills that I would never have been able to learn on my own. I feel ebullient.

I also feel as if I’ve been initiated into a kind of secret club. Most of my friends and coworkers are graduate students (or graduate school survivors). And now, when they talk about the long nights, early mornings, and empty pockets, I can nod in empathy. #word

Though my program was mostly online, working in a university afforded me a ready-made group of like-minded individuals with which to converse. Even if we weren’t studying the same things, my friends willingly read my circuitous, caffeine-fueled drafts and patiently sat while I tried to make meaning from the student development theory texts I was reading. When they went to the library and stayed until midnight, I was there, too. (You haven’t lived until you’ve had a pizza delivered to a university library.) I tagged along to every workshop, presentation, and roundtable discussion, even if it wasn’t geared towards my area of expertise. I’m all the richer for it.

I am forever grateful for my community within community, my tiny pocket of friends and peers within my workplace. Without them, I don’t think I would have made it.