It was commencement day for my college graduation. My family had made the two hour drive down from Maine that morning to Massachusetts, where I had been away at college for four years. Down were four of my closet family members, Mom, Step-Mom, brother and most proudly my Dad.

He was the one to have pushed me to not only go away to college but a four year one too. I had my mind set on a two year school for its downtown Boston location. However my Dad said one of his biggest regrets was never going away himself to college and to value the college experience over the city experience. He said that was the purpose of college first and foremost and to make that my priority, especially having lived in a one small and sheltered town my whole life.

It must have taken my Dad a lot of courage to speak those words and state how he felt. Ever the type of person to lean on being cerebral and stoic, it was surprising to see him so vulnerable but strong. Going forward I would lean on that energy, choosing to go to that college. I would call him weekly when away during those four years.

Those calls for him were both good, bad and everything in between. The amount of work and time invested for me just to be able to go away must had weighed on him when me grades weren’t as good as expected or was in trouble for thinking I was 21 two years too soon. The worst was when my friends and I were caught with marijuana weeks before graduation which he angrily reminded me of how I would work third shift for the rest of my life.

The day of graduation had finally come and my Dad couldn’t be more proud. After going through the ceremony and receiving my diploma, I met my family at the back of the tent on that eventful. There my Dad was, expecting him to be a composed as ever, he was anything but. His emotion poured out like a river smashing through a dam. That moment for him was not just four years in the making but many more. Times seemed bleak that I would make it that far whether it was my fault or something unexpected. That day my Dad gave something he never had to his first born son and served as an example for his youngest son who graduated from college four years later.