I never knew four years could fly by so fast, especially when you only have 22 years to your name to begin with. I still remember taking the wrong bus on the first day of class freshman year and ending up in West campus when I should have been at the Forum.

Naturally, after I thought like that, I wondered how I managed to make it out of college in one piece.

By all accounts, I shouldn't have survived. I'm not saying that just because I've graced Mount Nittany Medical Center with my presence four times, either. I would have never been able to pay for tuition by myself, pay for food and housing and gotten through my tough times all by myself.

That's the one thing that bugs me about graduation. It's all about your accomplishments, your achievements and your diploma. And it should be, to some degree. But I think we forget about the people who helped us along the way, because in reality, it's just as much their day as it is yours.

I'm not exempt from this mentality, of course. So I wanted to take the time to remember the people who sacrificed more for me than I ever deserved, or could ever hope to do in return.

Thank you for paying my freshman phone bills. You stayed up listening to my tears, my worries and my fears ... for three hours straight one night ... for an entire semester.

Thank you for telling me that if I came home on the bus, you'd pay for another ticket to ship me back to State College, causing another hour of tears. I didn't understand it then, but I do now.

Thank you for driving up every weekend that fall semester to bring me home. I guess it was cheaper than the bus.

Thank you for not pulling me out of college when you saw my freshman GPA and thought the decimal was in the wrong place. It only took me three years to fix that problem.

Thank you for letting me drive all the way to Maine and back that summer. And thanks for not flipping out when you found out that there was a murder where we stayed and that we were lost in the Bronx for two hours on the way home (that was so much fun, once we got out of New York City). Thank you for allowing me to live in a townhouse with my friends when it was a little more money than you wanted to spend. It worked out perfectly and you did it because you knew I'd be happy.

Thank you for not getting angry when I fell off the ski lift on Tussey Mountain ... and when I got really sick ... and when I cut my thumb open with a knife ... and when I received a concussion on Tussey Mountain after you told me never to go back.

I think the medical center is now looking into its own version of frequent-flyer miles for patients who just can't stay away.

Thank you for not making me get a job while I was here so I could concentrate on my studies. Of course, I just joined more activities that equated to working a full-time job.

Thank you for not answering your work phones with the phrase "What do you want and how much is it going to cost me," when you knew that's exactly why I was calling.

Thank you for letting me go to Orlando this past summer for an internship and for pretending you weren't worried when I drove home from Florida in between two hurricanes. It was the best summer of my life and I'm sure it was one of the hardest of yours.

Thank you for never making me feel inadequate or that any goal was impossible to achieve.

Thank you for saving for almost 30 years so I could get a college degree because you weren't given the opportunity.

Thank you for giving up family vacations, new clothing, home improvements and probably more things I don't know about so I could go to Penn State.

Thank you for being so incredibly humble that when you sacrifice as much as you have, you still don't want the recognition for what you've done.

But guess what?

My graduation isn't just about me. So thank you, Mom and Dad ... for everything.