More than 500 graduating students packed the Kolf Center in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on Sunday, ready to take their diplomas and start the next chapter of their lives. But for two graduates, there are family ties.
Timothy Ozminkowski and his mother, Maureen Fogarty, were both among the class from Fox Valley Technical College, graduating from the same school at the same time.
"He beat me by .2 on the grade point average. Now I owe him $500!" Fogarty said.
She and her son had a running competition to see who could finish college with the higher grade-point average, and now she's letting him enjoy the win.
"I am just ... living in the moment and loving every second of this with him and trying not to embarrass him at the same time," she said.
Education
Thomas Jefferson University issues apology for mispronouncing graduates' names
Ozminkowski's college journey started right after high school, taking English at UW-Stevens Point before transferring. Fogarty's path, meanwhile, took her down a different road.
"I always wanted to be a nurse ever since I was 12 years old," she reminisced. "But coming out of high school, I met my husband at the time, and we got married. So the timing was never right."
Because Ozminkowski completed his degree online while Fogarty took classes in person, the two said they didn’t know they’d be graduating at the same time at first.
"It was probably after ... the first year when I realized we could graduate together," Ozminkowski said.
"All of a sudden we were like, 'Wait a minute ... We're going to graduate at the same time!' So it was kind of really funny when it came together," Fogarty laughed.
Now the mother-son duo got to don their caps and gowns, walk across the stage and complete the life moment together, now forever intertwined by the love shared between the two.
This story was originally published by Noah Cornelius on Scripps News Green Bay.
