KeeNote: I graduated...again!

I graduated! From college! Again!

On Saturday, I participated in a one-year-late commencement ceremony at Augustana. My class of 2020 finally got our graduation after the pandemic thwarted ours last year. 

And then, I spent the rest of the weekend spending time with people I haven’t seen in way too long, and it was too good to put into words. 

It’s entirely cliché to say that I graduated from the best possible school with the best possible community backing me, but it’s also the truth. 

And, if you went to Augie, you know that to be true. Because Augustana is a small school, you rarely pass someone on the campus sidewalk that you don’t know or at least recognize. The Augie community is a special one—made special by the uniquely wonderful people that call themselves Vikings. 

I’m incredibly thankful to be a forever Viking. I was never just a number in college, never just a name on an endless stack of essays to be graded. I was Keeley, and people knew me as a Viking Advisor (other schools call them RAs), the managing editor of our school newspaper, the faculty/staff editor of our yearbook and a journalism and Spanish major. 

I made the best friends I’ve ever had in college—ones I know I’ll have forever. And I cannot possibly say enough good things about the professors at Augie. They are wonderful, intelligent and caring people that have such a profound passion for sharing their knowledge with the students. 

I especially need to recognize Dr. Janet Blank-Libra and Dr. Jeffrey Miller, who are two of the best people I’ve ever met and who taught me more in my years at Augie than I ever could have imagined. But they’re not just professors—they genuinely care about us and have us over to their houses for pancakes and plenty of coffee. They join our Zoom calls just for fun, and they give us potential Pulitzer-prize-winning exposé ideas. 

Augustana has a special community, and it was demonstrated to me over and over this past weekend when I ran into people I haven’t seen in a year but talked to like no time had passed. 

I could go on and on about my time at Augie, but it wouldn’t change what I know in my heart: that I am so endlessly thankful that when I first toured Augie, I knew that it would be my future home. 

Now that I’ve officially walked across the stage and switched my tassel alongside my classmates, that chapter of my life finally feels complete. But that doesn’t mean it’s over because my time at Augie will forever resonate with me, and I’ll continue to use all of the lessons I learned during my time there—journalism-related or otherwise. 

As we say: once a Viking, always a Viking.