Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Graduation

If you are Facebook friends with me, you know that Jesse graduated on Saturday.  We had to get up early and get over to WF to get a seat at the MPEC for the 10:00 graduation. It was amazingly crowded. Dr. Beck Weathers was the commencement speaker. He is an MSU alumni, and he was a part of the 1996 Mount Everest expedition that was hit by a storm. Eight people died and others were severely injured. After being unconscious for several days, he manage to walk to a camp. He lost both of his hands to frostbite. His commencement speech was awesome. One of the things he said was that when facing death, when you know you only have an hour, you don't think of your career - that is not what is important. You think about those you love. He had lots of good advice if people were listening. The sound system was not great.

As their names were called, the graduates walked across the stage. Now and then the announcer added something like, "Jane Doe, summa cum laude, President's Medal, etc, and 4.0 GPA!" and the audience cheered. It was cool. When Jesse walked across the stage she got the announcement of a summa cum laude, Presiden'ts Medal of Excellency, etc, but he forgot the 4.0 GPA. Still, the crowd cheered - I was very proud of her. After the ceremony we made our way outside through the crowd to take a few pictures.
Jesse was glowing! The family. Bo and Jes with GBN1. Jes and Lindz and their dip pose which they have done throughout their friendship. Eventually we moved on to lunch. Traffic was crazy with graduation and Christmas shoppers. I had made reservations at Napoli's and ordered lots of large pizzas. It worked well.
Afterwards, Bo and Jess got silly.
It was a happy day.

8 comments:

Okie Dokie said...

Proud parents, and you are blessed to have your kids being so successful !
Congrats to your daughter, and now it's on to getting her MBA :-)

Bag Blog said...

I am blessed. Thanks, OKie.

Jo Castillo said...

So proud of Jesse! Good for her. Looks like a super day and celebration!

Okie Dokie said...

A funny thing, my Pa was the only college graduate in the family, having graduated a teachers college in 1940. They were only two years back then. Ma was a licensed hairdresser in a couple of states (she was a hairdresser during the war, often doing the German Officers wives after they invaded France, ha). Later she found out selling men's clothes was much more profitable. She said she could sell men clothes all day, and women would still be trying to decide on the color, ha. Pa said the only reason he got a degree was the government paid for it, while they also taught him to fly. So when the war broke out he was sent to Florida to learn how to fly B-25's, having already a pilots license. After the war he found out he hated teaching. Had zero tolerance for slackers. He was kind of a brute with us kids, but only beat us if we didn't have our chores done. I don't think they had a semester on child psychology back then...

Bag Blog said...

Funny that it only took two years to become a teacher back then and they cranked out some fine teachers. Now days it takes four years and standardized tests, etc. Are teachers any better?

My dad was an educator and my mom was a hairdresser. They both loved what they did.

Bag Blog said...

Thanks Jo. I am pretty proud of Jesse. She is a good kid and fine artist.

Okie Dokie said...

What a coincidence! I think it was Ma who drove my dad to drinking. She would always be having neighborhood ladies in the dining room doing their hair on Saturday, and my dad would say, I'm going to the tavern where I can watch the game! ha

Bag Blog said...

Sounds familiar.