Graduation Day - 1986

Was scrolling Twitter yesterday and saw a post about the graduation ceremony at Gannon University.

Has it really been 37 years?

Wondering what 21-year old me would’ve thought about how it played out for 58-year old me.

He would’ve laughed at my physical condition and my current hair situation.

But back to 1986.

We were thrown out of our campus housing just a week before graduation. It was a misunderstanding about a few kegs, missing legs on a kitchen table and three or four broken windows.

I was trying to clean it up when the landlord used his key to open the door.

“I want you out! The police are on the way. You have until 5:00.”

Out we went.

Into the woods.

We camped out, our cars filled with all of our belongings.

“What is your address again?” Mom asked on the morning that I was set to graduate.

“Meet me at the Auditorium,” I said.

“We are coming in early. I’ll stop by your apartment.”

“Uhhhhhh.”

And I remember that I had a shot of Jack Daniels after o put on my cap and gown.

It hit hard.

The ceremony was horrendous. Hot and tired and nauseous.

And I kept thinking:

“What now?”

I was a college graduate. In 4 years. No small feat. Only one of my buddies had also finished in 4.

The page in front of me was blank. I knew only one thing. 

I wanted to write and to fill it with words.

Sixteen published books.

About a million words for work and for fun.

21-year old me would’ve liked that.

But, a month after graduation, I sat in an otherwise empty apartment in San Francisco.

I was working as a construction laborer on a hotel project in San Jose. I thought I was above such work.

Dad had welcomed me at the airport and we worked together for a little while and then he flew home for a few weeks.

I didn’t have a friend west of the Mississippi.

I had gone from singing drunken songs in the woods to ordering take-out pizza just so I could talk to the delivery guy.

All in a month.

I was scared, lonely, working off 4 years of beer, and I was anxious about getting things started.

I had no way of knowing how fast it would all go.

Congrats to the graduates.

It’ll go all right.

As soon as you get all the booze out of your system.