Author's Son Collin's College Graduation '06

The month of May is known for graduations and attendant celebrations. This May, I have a niece, Sarah, graduating from college and a nephew, Nicholas,

graduating from the IBEW program to receive his Journeyman Electrician’s License. Both Sarah and Nick have worked long and hard on their coursework, expanding their minds and their skill sets along the way.  Their graduations are hard earned and well deserved (and we are very proud of them!).

It got me thinking about graduations themselves and how we don’t really need to restrict them to the month of May or to getting degrees from our venerable institutions (although those are important accomplishments).  To “graduate” means “to complete a course of study.” It also means to “change” and to “go through progressive steps.”

One evening I was out to dinner with a number of my good women friends; we were talking about the fact that the real “raising” of our children was in the past. Although we had all poured our hearts and souls and brains (and, as one of them said, we have the damage to prove it!) into years of going through all of the progressive steps to raise them to be the best human beings they could be, it was a fait accompli. They had “graduated” and left the nest. And we realized . . . we had GRADUATED, too, and consequently, we are (Read more…)