You graduate from State University

State is so large that they have several Commencement Ceremonies, yours is one of the first. Karen, loving loyal girlfriend that she is, watches from high in the stands of the gym. She is recording this for Bobby and Ashley to see later as Bobby is graduating on another part of the campus at the same time as you. Karen will go across the same stage you are, in about five hours, if the school officials keep the program on schedule. You graduate with a degree in mass media. Karen will receive a degree in accounting. You and Karen plan to get married next summer, after you have had a year to settle into heading up all the advertising and p.r. work for all the Smith enterprises. Karen will become head of accounting when the current head retires in three years.

Ashley Wilson is in the theater watching her husband Bobby graduate with a degree in business. Ashley and Bobby partied pretty hard their first year until Ashley got pregnant. Mr. Smith agreed to support the couple if they got married. Ashley dropped out of college when she was three months pregnant and is not graduating. She is trying to record Bobby's graduation to show you and Karen but is having trouble as she is holding her infant daughter, Hannah. Her mom left the theater with Bobby, junior, five minutes earlier as he was living up to his terrible two's and disrupting everyone. Bobby will take over management of the grocery store as Mr. Smith is getting older and neither of his boys are going to be running the store. Mr. Smith will concentrate on his other business interests. Jon and Lexie joined Joe and Wendy at Oakendale University after their second year at State University.

Author's note:

After sitting at my computer for ten minutes trying to think of another common or generic name for a college, I looked up making up fake college names on Yahoo! search. I spent twenty minutes reading what I found. One thing I read was to take a name and add 'University' after it. I almost borrowed Springfield University from The Simpsons but switched to Oakendale after finding that Oakendale University doesn't exist but Oaksterdam University does. (Look it up, I was surprised at the curriculum.) As an afterthought, I looked up Johnson College and learned it exists, in Pennsylvania. The real college has no bearing to this story and was meant as a fictitious common name. As a lifelong U.S. citizen, it seems that ten percent of this country has the last name of Johnson, Smith, or Jones. Also there is a Johnson University in Tennessee and a Wolcottville, Indiana. Woocott Institute and Woocottville have never existed according to my search efforts and were created out of my imagination. While perhaps not evident in my writing, I like to keep my home state a mystery and to be as anonymous as possible (hint: not Tennessee or Pennsylvania). If not stated elsewhere in this story or website, any name resembling a real person or place is a coincidence, and all of this is fictitious. I write first for my own ego (and to practice typing) and second for all the fans I hope I have on this site.

Back to the story.

Mr. Smith is at Oakendale University to witness his daughter-in-law Lexie graduate with a degree in Political Science. Jon is getting a degree in Human Biology later in the day. They are coming back to Capital City for grad school as State is the only university that has both a law school and medical school and will admit them. Bill cracked up last year and has been spending the past year driving around the country in an old bus with Erica Bradley. The last update anyone received was about six months ago when Erica asked her dad to wire them some money as she was four months pregnant and they were broke. Mr. Bradley flew to the town where the money was sent but they were gone when he got there.

Joe graduated from O.U. two years ago with an associates degree in construction management. He has been waiting for Wendy to receive her degree in education. She might graduate next year but took this year off to raise their first child. Joe and Wendy like the Town of West Oakendale and plan to spend their lives in the area. Joe wants to get married but Wendy wants to finish college first. You see Amber leaving the truck stop where she works, on the outskirts of Capital City, when you stop for gas. She doesn't see you. You are moving some of yours and Bobby's stuff back to Green River City after graduation. She has four year old twin boys that look like miniature Tom's and behave worse. She has a three year old half black daughter following her and she is holding a little boy in diapers that appears to be part Hispanic. She is huge with a fifth child. You had heard that she supplemented her tips by sleeping with random truckers.