Graduating from college is no easy feat. College is a new world and is quite difficult to adapt to when you’re coming from high school immediately before, but once you’ve done it, it seems like you were made to be an academic. Naturally, you want to share this major achievement with your closest family and friends. After all, you’ve gained the bragging rights, but you don’t want the special day to be soured by someone who has the potential to easily ruin it by looking at you the wrong way. Since you’re the one graduating, you decide who you want to share the milestone with, period.

The college graduate in this next story explains that she lied about the number of tickets she had so her stepmother wouldn’t attend her college graduation ceremony. Truthfully, when she was only put in the position to lie once her grandmother kept insisting the woman invite her stepmother, whom she doesn’t hate but would prefer to keep at a distance. Scroll to read the full story below.