Admiring the Lake*

It was a perfect evening for Peter's graduation last night, unlike his brother Will's two years ago when it was 105F degrees on the school football field where commencement exercises are held. Will still has two weeks of classes so he couldn't come up to watch the rerun for Peter. I couldn't help remembering that I graduated from high school in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena along with the other high school in town and the junior college...not exactly an intimate ceremony. I don't think they even read our names. About the only thing I can still remember about that event was that OilMan was there with my parents.

When I graduated from Cal Berkeley a university wide commencement was held at the football field located in Strawberry Canyon in the hills above the campus. The stadium is still there, despite the fact that it is located directly on the Hayward Fault. It has been 'retrofitted' and supposedly will withstand the next big earthquake, predicted to happen some time in the next 40 years. Since my time, the university has changed to having separate departmental graduations where presumably the graduates have a more intimate ceremony and get an actual diploma and not just a piece of paper saying,  'you have participated in commencement exercises.'

When my father graduated from Cal I don't think there was a stadium, and when my grandmother graduated from there, there were only two buildings on the whole campus. But I do have her diploma.

When my mother graduated from UCLA,  she elected not to attend graduation ceremonies, perhaps because she was 70 years old and preferred to visit us in Edinburgh rather than 'walk' with a bunch of 22 year olds. When she eventually got around to picking up her diploma she read on it that she had graduated 'with honors'. 

 Each graduation represents the culmination of a lot of work, a lot of new experiences and a lot of growth. It is certainly a significant transition. Peter added one more transition last night  He turned 18 today, a day which began at midnight during  his Grad Night party. His comment was, "there are going to be a lot of people at my birthday party...."

*I took this picture at the newly cleaned and vacuumed Spring Lake. The ladies were watching a couple of swans grooming themselves at the edge of the water (extra)