Michigan college student’s graduation tweet goes viral
YPSILANTI, Mi. (WCMH) – “My step dad told me it was pointless to go to orientation, I wasn’t going to graduate…4 years later he in jail & I’m well.”
That’s the tweet that went viral for Davion Reeder the day he graduated from Eastern Michigan University.
Reeder tells WXYZ, the tweet serves as a reminder of how far he’s come.
“He told me it was pointless to go to orientation, I wasn’t going to graduate. It was kind of ironic, like I was saying, because in two situations, we are both black male statistics and he’s on the bad statistic on the negative and I’m on the positive, I’m a black male who just graduated college,” Reeder said.
Shortly after posting the tweet, it quickly began getting attention. Now it sits as being shared more than 147,000 times.
Reeder said things weren’t always easy in college. He had his ups and downs, but he always had his mother to keep him on track.
“She says it’s gonna be OK, ‘it’s almost done, you’re done, you got it, we got it.’”
Reeder, who graduated with a degree in criminal justice and a minor in military science, said his advice to anyone in a similar situation is to believe in yourself. “Just go after it and come with it. That’s what I would say, ‘come with it.’”