So here we are. As I type this I am 102 days from walking across the stage at the Devaney Center, the pinnacle of my education just so happens to be the finish line.
Before we get to the end, it's important that we start with the beginning. I will use this blog to not only countdown the 25 most memorable moments of my time at UNL, but also give advice to current students, let my friends share their favorite memories (with or without me, preferably the former), and most of all to bring my friends into all of this and let them know that they were there with me when I experienced the best that life has had to offer the past six years.
102 days to go. It's been seven years since the last time I was able to put on a cap and gown and feel pride like that. I was a little embarrassed to really get into the detail that was my time in school, but I guess that's what this is for. My first year out of high school I attended Iowa Western Community College. I had to go there for an entire year just so I could take ONE math class only offered in spring. I missed an entire semester at UNL because I was sick, and I missed another semester because I had to go through training for my current job. So that makes it a more respectable "five" years of higher education. The last three have been hell on earth, I have been working full time at the State Penitentiary for the tuition benefits while trying to stay sane in my extremely limited free time. I have had a total of four days with no work on school in the last 12 months.
Higher education, it turns out, never seemed to be an option for me. I cant, for the life of me, remember my parents (who I love to death and support me in everything I do) ever once telling me to prepare for college. It's not like the don't care, I know they both do more than words can describe, but in my upbringing it wasn't a priority, and in their time college wasn't exactly an unofficial requirement to a job as it is now. On top of that, I really didn't want to go to school. I started school as a way to pass the time until I turned 21 and could land my dream job of becoming a police officer.
It wasn't until my brother and I were searching for Husker tickets online and met some random stranger who was willing to sell us his tickets that I even began to think about school. And at this time, the idea of a University was out of the question both financially and grade wise for me. One night my brother found someone who had extra tickets. This stranger agreed to meet up with us, at his apartment in Lincoln, and exchange the money for the seats. My dad went with us and we met the kid, exchanged money for tickets, and went on our way. Shortly before the first game this kid emails me and says I'm welcome to stop by his apartment after the game to party. That guy was Adam Bahr, the first person who told me, face to face, I was good enough to not only get into school, but finish it. I instantly applied to UNL but was informed I lacked that one single math class that IWCC offered.
A year later I was sitting in the basement of my dad's house in Omaha and I will never forget the words I read on the piece of mail I received. "Dear John; Congratulations on being accepted to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the Fall 2005 Semester!" I had never felt so proud in my life, I made it. I was in. So to begin with the official countdown, MOMENT #25: Welcome To Nebraska. If I only knew what was going to come at me over the next few years at that time, I would of course do some things different, but I have no regrets. And with that, I hope you read enough to keep coming back, and if you did, I'm sure you're somewhere in this Top25, so get ready for your moment in the spotlight.
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