Summa Cum Laude

After 7 years, I am finally finished.  I walked across the stage at Comcast Center on May 17.  I heard "Summa Cum Laude" after my name was called.  I shook Javier Miyares' hand, and a bit later, I moved my tassel from right to left, along with 1,000 or so other graduates of University of Maryland University College.  

I thought that I’d make a bigger deal of graduating.  It still doesn't feel real. I still feel like I face a long struggle toward a distant goal, and I suppose I do.  I just don’t know what the goal is now.   In an entirely predictable instance of careful-what-you-wish-for, I’m actually a little depressed that the whole ordeal is over.  What to do now?  

I hung up my gown and my honor cord and my Phi Kappa Phi medal, and I'll wait for the university to mail my diploma later this summer.  I lost the tassel in the parking lot.