Graduation

Wow. It has been a long time. The last post I wrote on this blog was about a day of doing nothing. I haven't had a quiet moment since. Yet none of the stuff keeping me busy has been particularly interesting [except for the stuff I wrote about on another blog; that was great fun] and none of it has inspired me to write about it. Until now.

I celebrated Mother's Day early this year. My son graduated from college on Saturday with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from East Carolina University.

I don't talk about my son much on this blog -- not because there isn't anything to say (far from it) but because I'm pretty sure he'd be horrified to know I was talking about him here. Now that I've decided to devote a blog post to him and his accomplishments, I can't find words adequate to the task. I've written and deleted this post so many times, I'm no longer sure what I wanted to say. But I've pretty much decided I can't say it without becoming overly sentimental. So I guess I'll start by just describing the events.

There was a ceremony Friday night in a small (indoor) auditorium for the Economics majors, about 40 or so graduates. It was nice to hear my son's name called out and see him walk across the stage and shake hands with the Dean. Very nice. If that's not an understatement, I don't know what is.

The next day was the main graduation, held in the football stadium. If you've ever been to a graduation, it was exactly like that. Here is a picture, in case you've never been to one and wondered what they look like. Sitting in the two groups of chairs on the field are the graduates receiving doctoral and masters degrees. The couple thousand other graduates are sitting up in the stands. We all sat and stood and then sat again for about two and a half hours. It was sunny and hot. I was very grateful my daughter had thought to bring sunblock. And glad I remembered to bring kleenex.

There were so many proud moments this weekend, I'm not sure I can bring them all together and express them as one coherent thing. At one point in the weekend, I think it was Friday night when we all went out after the first ceremony, I was sitting there watching my son and daughter and listening to them talk and laugh and it occurred to me that beyond the fact that I love them, I like them. I like who they are and I like their friends. I like how they act and why they laugh and what they have to say. And I like the fact that they genuinely like each other. They're good people.

In the car on the way home yesterday, my daughter asked, "So, mom, what do you want to do tomorrow for Mother's Day?"

And I said, "I just did it."