Graduation and Adulation

Our baby's all growed up. The boy went and graduated Sunday, under a blue sky, and in the company of hundreds of fellow students, parents, grandparents, and other assorted well-wishers.

The weather was perfect. The mood was festive. There was a wonderful baccalaureate service the night before, where a dozen or so students shared their thoughts, some scripture from their holy book of choice (the student body comes from a number of countries), or some music. Our son chose to sing and play (on piano, no less) "Morning Has Broken", Cat Stevens aka Yusuf style.

We were also treated to a Saturday morning Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony. Yeah, the kid is bright. A neat part of the ceremony has all the inductees sign their names in a ledger that, I assume, goes way back in time, so their names join those of their predecessors from the 20th and 19th centuries. Pretty cool.

Go for LEGIBILITY this time!

There was an excellent brunch on the college President's lawn (omelettes cooked to order, and the most tender roast beef I have had in ages! Which I guess is due us, given the thousands of dollars we have parted with over the past four years...)

Then the ceremony, followed by a small reception in the Physics department where the lad spend much of his time. Well, it had to be a small reception, as they had all of seven senior Physics majors!

Finally, a dinner at a local restaurant, with a table for eighteen, including Grandma, who William's sister and bro-in-law picked up, and also one of William's favorite professors, who is in the 75-80 age range by our reckoning, but still going strong, and his wife. Two or three of us had written out some memories and tributres, and both William's sister and father (that would be me) found they couldn't read what they had written and maintain their composure, so Linda jumped in and pinch-read. A family of wimps, we are, some of us more than others!

And, after the cake had been diminished in great measure, Linda and I gathered our stuff and our wits and headed home, leaving the lad behind with his friends and his apartment where the lease lasts 'til May 31 - and by golly he's gonna get his money's worth out of the place! The future is a bit uncertain, probably involving some time collecting thoughts (and, we hope, a salary of some sort), followed most likely by grad school.

It all reminds me of a Kodak ad that used to run during the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights, which proves, if nothing else, that I am relatively ancient to recall such a thing. Anyway, the ad does a time lapse of a kid growing up to be an adult, and some sappy song plays along, asking" Where have you gone, my little one?" Or something of that nature. Anyhow, I cannot account for the time that has lapsed, or how we came to have two ADULTS out there in the world, but there we are, proud of both, finally relieved of college tuition, and ready for whatever the next chapter brings.

Note UFOs, upper right corner