Graduation

On an University campus located somewhere in North America, a tall man with brown hair speckled with some gray and green eyes filled with wisdom walked across a lifted stage. The room the stage was located in was silent, even though it was filled with people. These 500 people are waiting for their Dean to open up the graduation ceremony. The auditorium was so quiet, all you can hear were the confident strides of the Dean, as he arrived in front of the podium he cleared his throat to grab the graduate's attention. 

"I am Dean Franklin Hudson, and I wish to congratulate you on reaching the end point of this chapter in your life. Keep in mind that when one chapter ends, another is expected to be right after, so what is waiting for you after this page turns? That I can not tell you, but what I can see is that I am proud of this year's graduates. Every one of you has show potential and aptitude for many fields, and I hope that when the story of your life keeps adding new chapters, you all can look back fondly of the experiences you have acquired along the way. Allow me to introduce this year's elected speaker from this year's class to give you all some last minute insight and to close this boring ceremony, so we can go and celebrate properly." 

Small chuckles surrounded the auditorium because they knew how the Dean works. He was respected by most of the student body with his firm and fair way of running things, and his willing to assist those struggling hi their studies by offering unique programs to earn credit hours or help pay for tuition. As the small laughs and quiet chuckles died down, Dean Franklin looked fondly towards the front few rows at a particular graduate. 

"May our last speaker please step up and introduce himself." Franklin took a few steps back and started to clap for the approaching young man. The man had dirty blonde hair kept in a short crew cut. Freckles dotted his face and had the same striking green eyes as their Dean. Everyone was familiar with him, may it be through class or from the special programs the Dean had set up for a few struggling students. This man was in the top ten of their graduating class, star athlete on the University's swim team, and went out of his way to help tutor those that had a hard time understanding certain subjects.

As the young man approached closer to the podium, the Dean stuck out his hand in greeting. But to no one's surprise, the young man ignore the hand and pulled Dean in for a hug. With that, a round of laughter and chuckles commenced. Then silence once again arrived, and the young man walked up the podium. "My name is Connor Hudson, and I want to thank Dean Franklin Hudson and all of you to allow me to do the closing speech."

Connor then paused to scan through those in attendance and drew a deep breath. "There is one word we must not forget after we leave this 'chapter' as the Dean so aptly dubbed it. And that more is Ignorance. For those who don't know me, I enjoy learning about our history, because, through it, we are learned. Throughout history, we have tons of information we can learn from to correct our understanding of the world around us. With history, we strive to do and be better than our forefathers. Much like what had happened just over a century ago with the Gods appearing, it took one man to dive into the unknown to discover multiple possibilities, we can be like him."

"So to wrap up a small speech even smaller, remember the history you made, and you can carve a future for yourself. Learn from the past, and apply it to the present. Let's make everyone's 'Novels' here even with a happy ending! With that, let's end this with some applause and get out of here to party!"

~ ~ ~

Later that night, Connor was seated with his parents at the dining room table of their home. In front of them was a big spread of food cooked by Connors's mother, Penelope to celebrate his graduation. The atmosphere was jovial even when talking about a subject Connor has been dying to find out for just about 20 years. Connor was 23, just graduated from university, and went beyond his parent's conditions to know how could obtain his own powers. Of course he did his own individual research over the years and found out a lot. At first, he was surprised with this kind of information being out in the open but figured it was a big changing point in history that it might as well have been public.

Connor took one last sip of his beer and asked, "So, I am going to sign up for the Envoy program tomorrow. Anything I need to know?"

Penelope choked on the mouthful of food she just took a bit of, and hurriedly went to swallow it down with her own beer. That left Franklin to answer Connor's question, and with a sigh, he said, "Are you sure about this son? The program is still considered new, there could be some problems with the SP Gate, and they are still educating the Olympians that had surrendered or not included themselves in the war. Not only that, slots are being filled by the best of most branches of the military that already have a solid foundation in training."

Calmly Conner listened to his father, he knew that the many special forces were being picked to be a part of this project. Just the Army's Rangers could all be considered to fill up the slots but our government wants to keep things even relatively equal among the branches of the military. After swallowing the delicious food he was savoring he said, "I know, I know. I am not a battle-hardened solider, but what I am is a scholar, and what I have is knowledge. History shows that if you send people to an unknown land, in this case world, if only training in fighting then things can get kinda dicey. Talking from a more or less business sense, it will cost less to train a body than it will teach a brain."

The whole time that Conner and Frank were talking, Penelope was just staring at her son. She didn't know what to think after hearing his words. As she gazed at Connor, her eyes become hazy with tears and memories over the years. It's like he was growing up right in front of her eyes, from her feeding him baby food to putting band-aids on his cuts when he fell, all the way to last week doing his homework on the table they were currently eating at. The two men stopped talking when they noticed her wiping awa some tears.

"Mom I.." Conner tried to say but his mom smiled softly and shook her head slowly. "You're a big boy now Conny. If that is what you want to do, then we won't stop you." She then glanced at her husband who nodded. "Actually, we were going to recommend the project to you after you have obtained some everyday life experience to mature. Your father and I have some.. Well, let's call it to pull or some say so in the project. I am more so than your father since he is a Dean. We will try to help you get a slot, so let us end this talk, the food is getting cold."

The tension in Connor's body relaxed after hearing his mother as he thought 'Whew… I knew this would have gone one of two ways with mom, but I am glad I got the good ending to this one. Dad always pushes me to make my own decisions and make mistakes to better understand my limits and gain experience so I didn't think he would be to against it, but mom can be kinda… um … volatile. Now for the last question…'

The atmosphere was becoming more joyful when the topic of the Envoy Project was dropped, so Connor asked casually "So said I could learn more about getting powers like in the stories you have told me when I was younger. How is that possible?" Silence once again reigned supreme, but instead of being tense or hostile, it was still relaxed. Both of his parents looked at him with warmth and some expectation, Frank opened his mouth "You have to become a God."