I think pretty well, officially, everyone that was going to graduate this year has graduated. I’m proud of those seniors. I’m proud of the teachers. I’m proud of the schools. It makes me want to say “Hip, hip, hurray”! But it also reminds me of something that has always kind of been a ‘burr in my saddle’ for a long, long, long, time.
I didn’t get to walk the stage and graduate. I wanted to, even though I was a borderline student, I certainly wanted to. At that time, and this was 1960, the year I graduated. At that time, I think you had to have eighteen or it may have been twenty credits, I really don’t remember. I do remember as I headed into my last semester of my senior year, I had a counselor figure out my class schedule, and I was told I would finish with exactly the number that I needed. Moving forward, it was about two or three weeks before graduation, they called me in and said, “We’ve got a problem”. I said, “What’s the problem? Am I failing”? They said “No, you’re not failing anything, but you’re not getting credit for one of the courses you’re taking.” I don’t remember the reason they gave, but they said, “You are half a credit short”. I told them I was told I was right on target to graduate. They said, “Well, it’s not going to work out for you because you are half a credit short”. Now, I know absolutely nothing about the ceremonies here now, or any place else, but I’m thinking in 2023, they probably would have done something to help me out. Maybe they would let me walk the stage and then take a test the next week or so, and that’s all I wanted to do – walk across the stage and get my diploma. Did it bother me? Yeah, it bothered me. It didn’t keep me up at night or anything like that, but it hurt. But, about 2010 or somewhere along in there, they made me feed a lot better. You see, the high school invited me to give the Baccalaureate speech at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church. So, I felt better and I still feel good about it today. It was a great honor for me and It was appreciated.
I actually got my diploma about a month after graduation. So, that was it. I wanted to walk that stage. I wanted to very badly. I think any senior that goes that long and puts in enough of the work, I think they want to walk the stage and not just get a diploma. But, Brownwood said no. So, I never got to walk. I did get my diploma though. In fact, the people that helped me get it, I think would have given it to me late that night if they could, but I had to fill out some papers and do a couple of things and maybe it was two weeks later, but I got my diploma in the mail. I’m a graduate of Brownwood High School 1960, but I never got to walk the stage.
I’ll tell you I can’t put into words how proud I am of all the graduates. I’m going to tell you I hope your lives are full of a lot of major accomplishments, and it may not seem like it right now, but for a fact, getting that diploma, getting to walk across that stage, that’s an accomplishment! I’m proud of you. If you can do that, there is no telling what you can do in the future.
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].