View from the Cheap Seats

May 23-29, 2016

Graduation 2016

By William O. "Bill" James

People are graduating all over the place. It is that time of year. Last week I went to Fayetteville and watched my first born graduate from the business school. He graduated in the required four years.

That means if you take my time in undergrad and add it to his it only took us an average of 6 years to complete our undergraduate studies. Hopefully, his son will graduate college early and help take the average years to graduation down even further.

I look back in those years in college and try to identify what it was that went wrong and preventing me from realizing how important it was to study and generally take care of my business. I don’t consider myself a stupid person, but there is nothing about the way I handled undergrad that was “smart.”

Even as I ponder those missteps in those early years I reflect upon the numerous experiences those year gave me and the plain fact that my life turned out pretty good for a guy that failed to maintain a 2.0 grade point during a pledge semester during which I dropped all but a three hour course in finite math.

Even though my grades were pretty pathetic that semester, I was able to convince the professor to sign my grade slip for initiation and report I had the required “C” average. It probably did not hurt that his son was a pledge at another fraternity the same semester.

And waited for my son’s name to be called I tried my best to remember my own graduation. I still can not conjure up any memory of my actual graduation. I a taking pictures before and after but nothing solid about the actual graduation ceremony.

My son started a full time factory job at a fiend of mine’s business. As I write this, he is putting stickers on boxes or some other medial task. It will be very good for him to make an honest living while learning the value of a dollar. He will also learn what working inspire without a degree.

Ultimately, he will be fine as long as he continues to be the man he is today. Next semester he will attend law school and will probably not graduate before me, but he can and WILL get  a 4.0. It will hard, but nothing’s worthwhile ever comes easy. That is true for everybody, especially those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!

Bill James is a criminal defense Attorney and co founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway, and Fayetteville, Ark. He may be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com.