Casey: A College Grad

You did it babe! After just 14 years, college graduate is now a part of who you are!

Casey Smith, bachelor's degree in Business Information Technology: Network Administration.

Yeah, that's a mouthful.

What a journey it's been for you, with many ups and many downs.

Some might look at your first year of a failed attempt at college and be ashamed. Not me. While you were there at OBU having all that fun sleeping through the day and staying up through the night you were given a gift. The gift of guitar playing. The earliest favorite memories of our relationship include you playing your guitar for me. You don't play as often now, but every time you pull out that guitar I get all starry-eyed over you again.

I was so proud when in the summer of 2010 you made the decision to go back to school and make a path for getting out of retail, for the betterment of our family. You took three classes that first summer and in the middle of the semester lost your retail job, within a week had acquired another job, and still pulled off passing all three of those classes!

That first job after retail provided you with a Monday through Friday regular work schedule and while financially it was a shake up for our family, it wasn't devastating. Through it all, you kept going. The Lord was keeping us in the palm of His hand for sure. The new schedule allowed for more family time and study time.

You enrolled in a full load for the Fall and for three years after went to school year round, with full and sometimes more than full loads. Stop for a moment and think about that. Anywhere from 12 to 18 hours of college classes (which equates to at least 36 hours of school work every week on up to 100 hours of work depending on the load of assignments) PLUS a FULL TIME 40 hour a week job, married and with one child, then two.

Babe. Outstanding.

There were a couple of failed classes along the way and we had many pep talks getting over those "failing" fears and you kept going. You didn't give up. One of the most frustrating fails happened during what was supposed to be your last semester. Remember that semester? The one where you were taking all senior level courses and then got a new job in another state and we finished up fixing our Bartlesville home, packed all our belongings and moved our whole family into my parents' house? And your daily commute to work was at least three hours on the road? Yeah, no small obstacles there. After having a cry fest of frustration you enrolled again for the Fall and retook that stupid failed class, finishing with an A.

Babe. Outstanding.

We were all excited to have a Fall ceremony, celebration, and degree in hand...then we found out Rogers State University doesn't confer degrees in the Fall. Whaaaa? How messed up is that? So, we were forced to wait until the Spring to have your coursework audited again for graduation. The audit was fine and we opted not to travel for the ceremony considering how pregnant and uncomfortable I am and it's a four hour drive. We should be receiving your diploma in the mail in approximately six to eight weeks. Happy Graduation to you!

A year ago when we thought you were finished (final grades hadn't been posted yet) we took some fun pictures on campus with the boys. I'll share them now for remembering later. There were only a handful of times you were required to be on campus for your schooling, the majority was taken through their online degree program where you basically taught yourself and then did the coursework, usually between the hours of 8 pm and 3 am on week days, and most of the weekend.

I am so proud of you. I don't think you know how proud I am. I am thrilled that the phase of our life with full time schooling is over for you. It was tough, but it's also been rewarding. You deserve to be whisked away to an all inclusive resort on a beautiful island, or maybe a cozy cabin in the forest, with your wife to celebrate. Instead, I'm going to birth our third child in a few weeks and we'll have to put that amazing trip on hold for a year or two. I love you and I hope you know your sacrifices for our family have not gone unnoticed.