10: Divine Commencement

Graduation Day! Although I graduated in August 2022, the commencement ceremony for Mercer University is only held in May of each year. That meant my commencement ceremony would not be until May 2023. Appropriately enough, the commencement was on Mother's Day.

My mother and my wife had offered a great deal of support as I worked through my PhD, so giving them the gift of me finishing school was all too welcome. But they, and my mother-in-law, also did a lot to support me through my concerns with sugar and diabetes. Unfortunately, on this day, my mother-in-law couldn't join us, but she was cheering for me just the same as I walked across the stage. But what happened at commencement made for a truly divine encounter.

During my time in the PhD program, I had three other classmates I began with in Fall 2015. Unfortunately, one could not continue in the program, leaving what I called the Big Three. Laura, Paula, and I worked hard as we navigated the remaining coursework and the dissertation process. Laura completed her PhD in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, most of her research was completed before all the lockdowns, allowing her to work on analysis that didn't require meeting with individuals in person. However, Paula and I completed our proposals a year and a half after the pandemic began, meaning most things only required masks or vaccines. That allowed both of us to conduct in-person research and work towards completion of the program. Paula and I had a tight window to completion in 2022, but we did complete it!

It was an arduous journey for both of us, so of course, we planned on going to commencement. Because of the way the ceremony is set up, they put everyone in specific cohorts together. Bachelors students sat together. Master's students sat together. So, Paula and I, being the only PhD students, sat side by side for one last time as a "student" at Mercer. We would leave that day as official alumni at Mercer University. But the real divine piece to this didn't happen in the ceremony but in the stands surrounding us during the event.

My mom, dad, Leslie, and the kids sat in the stands above us, and I could see them waving to me from afar. We were at Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia. The stadium rose up from the ground floor, where the ceremony was conducted, allowing for a nice view for attendees. Eventually though, a lady came and sat down beside my mother. She asked first if she could sit there with her family, to which my mother replied yes immediately. There certainly was no assigned seating that day, except for us in the ceremony. Once they sat down, as my mother always does, she began to chat with the older lady and learn more about her.

My mom is a social butterfly and doesn't know a stranger. But on this day, this particular interaction would become strange. But in a good way.

At some point, while talking to one another, the lady sitting beside my mom started hollering down and waving at the graduate she was there to see, along with her family. My mom asked the lady who their graduate was, and the lady said it was her daughter, and she was down near the middle, in my location on the floor. My mom then asked her what degree her daughter had earned. The lady replied, "She earned her PhD in Nursing." My mom thought, what? Then the lady told my mother, "That's her next to that gentleman." The gentleman was me.

My mom was a little shocked. Somehow, in all these people in the stadium observing, my mom just happened to end up sitting beside my classmate's mother. Even more ironic was that my mom and Paula's mom wore black and white striped dresses to the event. My mom looked back at Paula's mother and said, "That gentleman is my son. He's graduating with his PhD in Nursing as well." Paula's mother was now shocked herself. Neither could believe they sat beside each other, just as their two children sat beside one another in the ceremony. People sitting near my mom and Paula's mom had heard some of this and began chiming in too. "You mean to tell me the two of you don't know each other, and both your kids are graduating from the same program, and you just happened to sit beside one another?" This person said they got cold chills thinking about it. "That is a God thing," said another person sitting nearby.

There's a lot of truth to that. Paula and I both went down to the wire on our PhDs, trying to complete them. Paula, unfortunately, had lost her father along the way, but still was striving to complete this journey in memory of him. That made for a very special moment as she walked across the stage, signifying the end of her journey in the program. I followed behind her shaking hands with the Dean, and having the President say to me, "Congratulations, Doctor" all while my mom yelled out, "That's my son." He voice cracked a little bit in the process of yelling. Of course, after the ceremony, we all went and pigged out! My family and I had some yummy Japanese at Kani House in Buford, one of our favorite places to go.

But after all of this excited simmer down, May 23rd was fast approaching. This was the day that would determine where my A1c was at that time, after another 6 month stretch. I was doing pretty well with my dieting, minus a big meal on this day with graduation, but I was still concerned had I done enough? If the A1c was still up, where would things take me next with my regimen. Honestly, with all the good that was happening leading up to May 23rd, 2023, I had a better feeling that I was expressing. Besides, the number 23 was on my side. 

Tune in next time for the next segment 10: Good as Can Be.