Forty-one years ago this summer, I was sitting around with nothing much on my mind. No future really, by today’s standards. I’d just graduated high school and, to tell you the truth, I don’t remember applying to a single college. I’d never held a job outside of mowing the lawn at my church. Looking back, I don’t know how I survived.
Except for a fortunate chain of events, I could still be sitting there in Omro, Wisconsin (not that there’s anything wrong with that at all — Omro’s a great place — they’ve got one of the world’s best librarians!) instead of banging away at a keyboard on the other side of the world, living adventures most people in Wisconsin could never imagine. That chain of events gave me a best friend whose last name was only two names removed from mine in our graduating class (hi Mollie and Sally!). And so, when the Air Force recruiter ran the list of graduating students at our school, he happened to call us both on the same day. We already had another friend who was joining, so we both thought, “what the heck, may as well.”
To shorten the story, those events led to today, where, as a manager of the unit’s language program, I got to witness yet another graduation ceremony for a group of students who had just completed another five-week course. And let me tell you, I’ve been doing this just shy of 13 years, and it never gets old. I get to see some of the brightest and sharpest Airmen (with the occasional Marine or Soldier) finish up some of the most challenging coursework you will ever find, presented by an incredible team of teachers. It’s downright invigorating.
Today’s ceremony was attended by two new Commanders who got here within just the past couple of months, as well as other leaders who stopped in to show their support. As usual, they were impressed. But that’s the least I could expect — I’ve been to about a hundred of these events, and I still am.