Graduate

The word graduate is usually referred to an individual who is about to graduate or has graduated above and beyond the heights that a school or college prepared them for. A graduation is typically a joyous event where individual graduates are presented one at a time on a stage in front of an audience a degree in a specific course of study they learned during the time they attended the school or attended the college.

Often the first time a person graduates is at a special event acknowledging seniors who have graduated from their High School.

I never graduated High School. 10th grade was the last grade I completed in High School before I studied for a G.E.D., took the G.E.D. test, passed and received my G.E.D. certificate signed with the stamp of President Bill Clinton.

I didn’t graduate College either. I attended one year of College on the campuses of Front Range Community College where I took a full course of prerequisites and earned credits that would have gone to an Associates Degree if I had completed the two year degree.

On this blog I’ve used the word “graduated” in the context of passing the requirements to leave on my own volition and live as a free man in society outside of and away from being locked up as an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital were my rehabilitation started.

The truth is not everyone passes the requirements to do what I’ve done. A percentage of the individual patients placed in a psychiatric hospital don’t leave. Some of the individuals in a rehabilitation environment don’t do what is expected of the patient to be able to leave ever.

If you can imagine living in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of your life where you are kept healthy enough to live, usually locked inside and under constant supervision is the reality of a percentage of patient residents.

While the day that I “graduated” from being a patient confined in the psychiatric hospital to leaving as a free man meant a lot to me there was no crowd of people cheering me on and wishing me the best as is often the situation at High School and College graduations.

The “graduation” moment wasn’t as straight forward as exiting the building on my own. I was given a care bag from a member of the staff in the psychiatric hospital and had support from a professional working in social services I was introduced to while a resident in the facility and with me when I left helping me adapt to living in society.