RTW: Graduation, Shmaduation

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: How did you spend/how will you spend the summer after graduation?

Well, for me, I have to say that high school graduation was a bit anticlimactic. Don't get me wrong, it was an accomplishment, especially considering on a few occasions it looked like I wouldn't graduate.
You see, I hated school. Loved learning, but didn't feel like there was a lot of learning going on in high school. So I just stopped going (claiming illness to avoid major attention from the truancy office). I averaged 1-2 days of attendance a week.

What was I doing with that time, you ask? Consorting with thieves, criminals, villains, dragons, and wizards. Yes, this rebellious teen was spending her days reading, writing, drawing, and watching TV. Wild, eh? But good practice for my writing career.

But that couldn't go on forever, and it was eventually noticed that I wasn't in school much. I asked about an early exit, so in my sophomore year, I took the CHSPE exam and passed with flying colors. It was meant to allow you to attend college early or just head into the workforce with a diploma equivalent, but there was only one problem: you had to be 16 to drop out of school, and I was only 14 at the time (skipped third grade).

So back to attending the bare minimum of school days, until in my senior year I was starting with a deficit of 190 credits--a full year behind. But alternative high school proved to be a good match for me, because you worked at courses at your own pace. By that time I'd decided I may as well finish school, and whipped through each class in a breakneck 2-4 weeks.

I finished my credits in February, at 16, but by the time the ceremony was held I'd turned 17. And had already found a full-time job managing a pet store, bought a car, and otherwise became a contributing member of society. So the actual ceremony seemed like just an event I went to, without being a big deal by then. And summer was spent working.

But--there's more. I worked straight up until my husband got a nice paying job in his field (with his newly minted BS degree), and was then able to quit my job and attend college full time. Without the distraction of work, I rediscovered my love of learning within an academic environment. So much so that by the time I got my A.A., I had all these extra credits from classes that I took just for fun. Drama, natural history, literature, creative writing, and so on.

For me, that was the equivalent of that feeling of freedom and "anything is possible" that most people associate with that summer after graduation. It was a bit delayed, and ironically involved more school, but there it is.

What about you? Did you have a big summer after graduation or some other milestone? Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!