Good Fortune Carved in Silver

I recently graduated college. It was a really great accomplishment for me to be the first person in my family to do so. On graduation day, even though I disliked having to be up so early and it was freezing (so I wore my sweats under my gown—classy, I know), I still marched proudly (and sat through the whole 3 hour ceremony). Being in a crowd of nearly five hundred other students can certainly make you feel pretty ordinary, but I know that making it that far is actually quite the opposite.

For me, attending college, much less graduating, was a blessing. I am so fortunate to have had the support that I did. My mother and her siblings grew up in a household where education was not vital because their own mother was trying merely to survive and provide for the seven of them with barely an English vocabulary. She was from Germany and married my grandfather, an American soldier. He brought her to this country to live the “American Dream,” which turned into a nightmare. He later abandoned her with the seven children, and hardly a dime. My grandmother could not drive, and couldn’t afford to work, as her income would not likely cover childcare. My aunts and uncles and mother attended school but were not encouraged to further it later on. Several made it through high school, and each of them has worked very hard to make a good life for themselves and their families.

For me, having the opportunity to receive an education has made me truly fortunate. I know how lucky I am to have a mother who has pushed me to do well and made sacrifices to help relieve some of the stresses that she has been faced with. All of this is in the back of my mind typically, but was ever refreshed on graduation day.

One of the most unique graduation gifts that I received was my sterling silver Pandora graduation cap charm from my parents. It is my first dangling Pandora bead and really makes a statement on my Pandora bracelet. I have several other beads, as the photo shows, but none that have as much a meaning as this one. This bead truly represents a feat in my life.

-Sarah M