This Wednesday, March 10 from 12. to 6 p.m. in Reeve is Countdown to Commencement, an open house for all planning to walk across the stage May 15.

Both of my parents are making plans and asking me questions about the ceremony. I’m working on perfecting my graduation speech (which is due this Friday March 12), applying for other graduation awards and trying to stay on track with classes.

I’m pretty excited for the countdown open house this Wednesday, because I still have some questions about the process and ceremony. I also am working on keeping my family up to date on everything.

I recently received an e-mail from my step mom that was sent to my extended family saying, “Shane will break the cycle and become the first Arman to graduate college!” I think this idea crossed my mind before, but I’m starting to realize this May will be as huge a deal for my family as it will be for me. Talk about pressure.

Writing this graduation speech has been a long process. As I said before, I started writing the speech in January and have been making tweaks along the way. Last week, I made some great progress and I am fairly satisfied with where the speech is at.

Writing this type of speech has been difficult. It needs to resonate mainly with other graduates, but also has to appeal to a wider audience. Ultimately, I went with a theme very close to my heart and something that largely defines who I am.

I felt like I couldn’t be too general with the theme, I had to narrow it down and be specific. Anyway, here is a little sneak preview of my theme, which probably won’t change. My theme is “Don’t think or expect, have confidence that you will.”

While I really, really want to be class speaker even if I don’t receive the honor I plan to share the speech with family and friends, who I’m sure will appreciate it.

If I do get the honor, I can assure you I will be passionate and ready to share a piece of myself with a whole lot of people.

68 days.