If there is one photo ingrained in the mind of Deacon Lipsmeyer that best represents his senior year, it would be a “photo…of this painting…that me and my dad painted together when I was like six. And it’s…this fishbowl-type painting, like a cosmic little swirl.” This painting is one of few things that, even though he claims not to be sentimental, Deacon holds dear, saying, “The things that I have are things that intensely remind me of my relationship with my dad.” Deacon feels the symbolism shown in the painting of a little fish in a great big sea as he is embarking on the next step in his life’s story: attending college at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Prior to last night’s graduation, upon his interview with our Journalism Team, Deacon was asked for the forecast of his 35-day plan to graduation. He remarked, “I don’t really know, honestly. Ironically enough, it’s more one for survival than anything else.” He truly does want to “enjoy it” because “there are these moments in which I tap in and feel really connected to the world around me.” Focusing on the brief time that remains in his high school career is something that happens at the most random moments: at a stop light, for instance, where Deacon will pause to “enjoy all the moments as they come.”

Because Deacon’s future career is in Journalism, where punctuation matters, he claims his favorite punctuation mark is “the semicolon because I can’t use it…every time I try and use it, it utterly betrays me.” He does admit, though, that he has never tried hard to use the semicolon until his senior year in Journalism because he thought “it was a pointless punctuation mark.” We can all hope Deacon embraces this useful mark of punctuation; it might serve him well in his future career!