The real thing

After yesterday's preparation and rehearsals, this evening was the 'real thing' for the graduating class of 2024 at Robert College.  This is the last class who would know me - they were freshmen, Lise Preps, in 2019-2020, my last year of full time teaching.  Even more thought provoking, in four years since I retired, the faculty has changed so much that I didn't know about a third of them as they walked past at the start of the ceremony.

Feeling old.

A lazy day, doing very little and enjoying it!  The weather in Istanbul is more temperate than in Didim, and I am comfortable for the first time in weeks.  Other than walking to the bakkal (mini market) this afternoon, I mostly read and sat about, chatting to Alex when he was around (and not in meetings), until it was time for the ceremony which I wanted to watch from a distance.  Having sat through 21 of them in the past, I didn't need to be in the audience, and anyway, I could hear and see most of it from Alex' apartment - but it was nice to stand by at the start as they all processed in, and then stand at the back at the end some three and a half hours later, for the final moments and celebratory traditional mortar board tossing by the new graduates.  Congratulations to them all.