I Graduate tomorrow...

I am in a grateful daze everywhere that I go. I picked up my black commencement robe yesterday. And my Gold and Green tassel is hanging from one of the picture frames on my wall.



Here are my Graduation Announcements

Some of the people that I gave announcements to:
*Mom
*Dad
*Gramma
*Kath
*Professor Caldiero (Humanities)
*Professor Riboldi (Spanish)
*Professor Granger (Math)
*Professor Frankenhuijsen (Pain. LOL!!!! Math)

*4:38 P.M.*
I am just back from the Graduation Rehearsal at UVSC. The north wind was popping all of the Gold and Green flags that are lining the pathways into the McKay Events Center. I walked up all of the stairs very slowly...I wanted to drink it all in. I loved everything. I will never get to do this again, not like this. There were not very many people there, I was not surprised. But I was being obedient and I went. The students looked utterly bored as the gorgeous girl with long black hair gave all of the "and you had better not be late" announcements. Everyone was wearing a hoodie, including me, due to the winter weather outside. We divided into our separate schools and followed our "leaders" out into the different buildings on the UVSC campus to go to the places of our specific convocations. I got to go through a hall that I have never been through, in the entire time that I was at UVSC. Ah...I love that place.
When all was done and I finally got outside, there was a blizzard and everyone was running to their cars. I loved it...ah! I loved it! The dark snow clouds over Utah Lake made it look more like an ocean...like a storm over the ocean. I imagine it is what England would look like with the clouds over the dark grey sea. So beautiful... .
As I drove home in the white melee, there was steam rising from the roads in unbelievable amounts...a crazy mist...like every square inch of the all roads were concomitantly breathing (it actually made me feel a little crazy). And the wind was whipping so hard from the north that I could hear the chains clanging against all of the flag poles.
My robe is hanging on my door, I have not ironed it yet, so it is wrinkled still. Looking at it...I just have to wonder...who else has worn it? It is a rented gown from a HUGE distributor of graduation apparel. And from the looks of it is at least 30-40 years old. There must be hundreds of people who have worn it as they have walked across the various graduation stages of America...all dressed in their graduation best. Who's was it before it was mine? Mine for three days. How are THEY doing? I think that I am inclined to wonder about the girls who have worn it. Are they happy now? Did they get to go into the fields that they studied so hard for?
I hope so. And what about the people who will wear it after me? What will their hopes and dreams be? I hope (and even pray) that their lives will be happy, just as the ones who wore it before me. I will say a prayer for luck, for all of those who have ever worn, or will ever wear this particular graduation gown. Even me.



As I was at the McKay Events Center for rehearsal, I looked at the other students and wondered what THEIR stories were...what they are graduating in and what they are going to be doing with their lives now. They were so young, many of them. And others, were well into their 50's and I just had to wonder...what were they doing...and I hoped for them that they would be able to do what they wanted to do in their lives. This is such an transcendental thing. It really is.