To all graduating seniors…

By: James Lockhart

I can remember my senior year very well, it’s a special time in every person’s life. On one hand I was glad to be done with high school, but on the other I was apprehensive about going to college and having to be responsible for my actions.

I had taken college credits my senior year, so I kind of knew what to expect. My first two years of college were spent at Carl Albert State College. I was a prevet major.

At Carl Albert I didn’t have work very hard to make a B, and in several courses I made an A without anymore effort.

I can remember the day my mom and I drove to Stillwater to enroll me at Oklahoma State University. We went to the registrar’s office and I told them I wanted to be a vet.

Then they asked me which college I would like to attend. I told them OSU, that’s why I’m here. The young lady behind the counter laughed and laughed. She had to explain to me that a university is made of several colleges within itself. For instance the college of agriculture or animal science or the college of engineering.

Which “college” at OSU did I want to finish my undergraduate studies in? I chose the college of animal science.

The first month or so I kind of wondered around until I found my way to my classes.

I attended the wrong class for a couple of weeks that first semester. It wasn’t until the instructor gave out the first test that I figured out I was in the wrong class. The class I was supposed to be in was next door. I still have nightmares about going to the wrong class.

I can remember taking a physiology class at OSU. There were so many body systems and chemical equations to learn I really struggled. I had always liked the science classes that had a lab. Physiology lab was hard, I barely made a C at the end of the semester. Physics II was another class that was hard as well.

That first year at OSU I met some kids from very rich and powerful families. They seemed so far ahead of me it was unreal.

The more I went to class and the more I struggled I began to really doubt if I was really meant to be a veterinarian. So, I gave up on my dream of becoming a vet and changed my major. I chickened out, to put it bluntly. I was afraid I couldn’t do it. I’ve regretted that decision ever since.

My daughter only lacks about a year to finish up her doctorate of chiropractic medicine. She went to a junior college like me, then went to Dallas to chiropractor school at Parker University. This past week I asked her if she ever felt as if she wasn’t good enough to be a chiropractor and get through school. She immediately said yes, on the very first day of school.

She told about that first day in vivid detail. The class was assigned to learn all the little holes in the human skull. They also had to learn which blood vessels or nerves ran through each little hole in the skull.

She said she sat in her car and cried that first day. She didn’t think she could learn all of those holes, blood vessels and nerve endings by the end of the week. As it turned out she made an 85% on the assignment.

To all of the seniors in 2024. I hope you have courage. The courage to be brave and take that first step to go to college and pursue your dreams. I hope you have to courage to believe in yourself and your abilities.

I doubted myself when I was your age. I wasn’t a straight A student and I only scored a 20 on the act. I wasn’t the valedictorian or honor roll student in high school. I was a B/C student in high school.

Last year I helped teach a leadership class to over 300 students from around the world. The college where I worked, you may have heard of it, Harvard university.

This coming fall I start my doctoral program in education.

“Ad Astra per Aspera” A rough road leads to the stars.