That's right folks. I. AM. DONE.
This feeling, this freedom, this knowledge that I no longer have to write, edit, forgo sleep is pretty much the best thing ever.
This past weekend was graduation and it was so great to celebrate with my classmates, my friends, my professors and my family.
I loved every moment of it.
My parents and little brother flew down last Thursday for the weekend. It was great having them in town. We haven't spent time like that as a family in awhile. We did the toursity things. Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf. And we ate. Of course.
Graduation was Friday night. It was so windy out that our caps were flying left and right as the school of Education ceremony began. This was the first time I was in the campus Church. And it was so beautiful.
The ceremony was much more memorable than undergraduate. Maybe because it was smaller, and filled with people I (mostly) knew. Maybe it was because I felt closer to my professors than I did at WSU. Maybe I'm just getting old and have forgotten what my undergraduate ceremony was really like.
That's probably it (#gocougs)
At the end of the ceremony, the outgoing president gave such a great speech. Here are a few bits and pieces:
Now I ask you to take one final quiz. Don’t worry if you can’t
get the answers right, it’s not graded. Name the three wealthiest people in the
world. Name the last three Heisman winners. Name the three most recent recipients
of the Academy Award for Best Actress. Name the last three authors of the Nobel
Prize for literature.
Now here’s the next set of questions. Name three teachers
who engaged and or inspired you. Name three friends who have helped you along
the way. Name three people you enjoy spending time with. Name a few people who
make you feel appreciated and special.
If the second set of questions was easier to answer it’s because
the people who mater in our lives are not the ones with the most money or celebrity
status or best credentials. They are ones who care. Sages of every age and
culture recognize that worldly success has shallow roots. Interpersonal bond permeate
through and through and endure to the end. Our society has developed vast institutions
around things that are easy to count. Not
around things that matter most.
In 2005 Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced
that she was stepping down from the nation’s highest court to spend time with
her husband John who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s prior to his death. At
the nursing home in Phoenix, John fell in love with another woman. Justice O’Connor visited the couple often. She
admitted to being thrilled at sitting with them as the couple held hands on the
swing. Because she said it was a relief for her to see her husband of 55 years
so content after having lost so much to dementia. Psychologist Mary Piper, in reflecting
on O’Connor’s love and devotion to her husband, said that young love is all
about wanting to be happy, old love is about wanting someone else to be happy. So
I wish you all lives enriched by deep and satisfying relationships. A life filled with people who care for you. But
most of all, I wish you old love at a young age.
I just loved that. It was so simple and beautiful, but it packed a punch. Perfect way to end my Grad School career. 
