My Diploma
by Kristina Lininger
Written 9-5-11
Delivered 5-29-12
A diploma means many different things to different people. to some it might just be a piece of paper, others are proud of it. To me it has a different meaning, a special meaning. For years my baby sister wanted me to get a diploma and finish school. A very tragic accident happened to her and she is no longer with us.This year would have been her senior year of high school and she would have. So I decided this year I would get my diploma.
It would not be the same as getting hers. At least in place of her getting the diploma, I can get mine and give it to her. Going back to school is hard for me, but I know with each assignment and test she is looking down smiling and telling me that it is almost time. I know that as I struggle to get my work done, she is over my shoulder helping me get through it.
Getting my diploma has been something I have wanted for years have been afraid. With Micaela being gone I feel that I let her down by not being strong enough while she was with us. By finishing it and doing it than I will feel like I have kept my promise to her. At the same time I can benefit by being able to provide better for my children. A part of me wishes that I can exchange diplomas with her and laugh and joke with her.
So when I actually do receive my diploma, I am going to physically place it with her. Perhaps I can get a second copy of it to keep with me and than I am going to try to continue changing my life in a way to benefit myself, my children, and make Micaela proud of me!
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In a supremely touching address at Tuesday graduation of the Adult Education Class of 2012, Kristina Costanzo Lininger dedicated her graduation and high school diploma to her baby sister Mickie.
The 29 year old mother of five said that she dropped out of school 11 years ago after finding out that she had not passed the math proficiency test when a senior at West Wendover High School.
“It was silly of me,” Kristina said the day after her graduation. “But I found out two months before I was supposed to have graduated that because I didn’t pass the Math Proficiency test I would only receive a certificate of attendance. So I dropped out.”
That decision did not sit well with Kristina’s family especially her youngest sister Mickie who was just entering school herself.
Like many small towns high school graduation is a community event, a secular coming of age ceremony the entire population celebrates whether they have a child marching or not.
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After Lininger left school, life got in the way of her returning by the age of 28 she was the mother of three and a stepmother to two children. And while the young woman had a fulfilling life the fact that she did not get her diploma always bothered her and also her little sister Mickie.
“She was always on me about it,” she said with bittersweet smile.
By the time Mickie entered junior high she began not only to pressure Kristina to get her diploma but made weekly visits to Adult education teacher Gene Ghiggia to get her sister enrolled in the program.
“At least once a week for five years, Mickie would come into the classroom and tell me that her sister was going to enroll and get her diploma,” Ghiggia said during the ceremony.
Mickie Costanzo in March 2011 by Toni Fratto and Kody Patten. Both have since pled guilty and will be serving life sentences for their horrendous crime.
At the beginning of this school year, six month after her sister was slain, Kristina Lininger finally found the courage to walk through the door of the Adult Education class room and take a seat.
“I wanted at least one thing good to come of this,” she said. “Funny thing the first requirement I passed was the Math. Mr. Ghiggia is such a good teacher. He helped me so much. When I started this I was doing it for Mickie but now I realize I was also doing it for myself.”
Every year dozens of Wendover residents participate in the adult Education program offered at West Wendover High School.
At the start of each school year Ghiggia first English assignment to his students is an essay of what their diploma would mean to them.
It was that essay Kristina read during Tuesday’s graduation ceremony.
“The ages of our students can vary from 18 to 70,” Ghiggia said. “For whatever reason they left traditional school without graduating. Our program is to help them get their diploma.”
And every year a dozen or so of Ghiggia students take that final march to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance.
“It is not just the piece of paper,” Ghiggia explained last year. “It opens the door to so many possibilities. A lot of our graduates go on to college, trade school or join the military without a high school diploma those options would be almost impossible.”
In addition to Lininger poignant speech this year’s Adult Education graduation also marked the last time Gene Ghiggia would head the Adult Education program he led for almost a decade.
Next year the educator will transfer to the West Wendover elementary School as a main stream 5th grade teacher.
Way to go, Kristina!
Wonderful!