They Missed My PhD Graduation—So I Used The Empty Seats To Tell The Truth

notes with trembling hands, and looked up.

The empty seats pulled my gaze like gravitational force.

My heart stuttered, skipped, nearly stopped.

Then, deliberately, I let my eyes travel beyond them—to the rows and rows of strangers and colleagues, to faces turned up to me with varying expressions of expectation, curiosity, polite boredom, genuine excitement.continue reading …