The World's Common Tater

I have mentioned several times that my daughter graduated from college last week. She was a double major in History and Government and Politics, so we had the option to attend three commencement ceremonies. She chose to walk at the commencement for her majors and not attend the big one for everyone. She was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Wednesday afternoon so we had a commencement that morning, induction that afternoon, and then another commencement early the next morning. My MIL was also in town and staying with us. It was a lot and came with a lot of emotions.

Proud and Happy

Of course, I am proud of her for graduating from college. I’m happy for her that she graduated, especially because she seemed so happy herself. It was a big day and a bg accomplishment.

Sad

Sad for a couple of reasons. Sad because it moves us closer to the empty nest being permanent. She is going to grad school locally and will move back home once her lease is up in July, but that is a temporary thing and could be very short-term if one of her friends gets a local job and they get a place together.

Also sad as you get the beginnings of the college friend group going their separate ways. One of her close friends leaves very soon for grad school in Utah. Another wants to work in NYC. Who knows where the others will end up. She is the only one that I know of who is doing grad school at the same place. It will be a change that might be hard.

Irritation

I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t irritated by something. First, it was at the first commencement. The first couple of majors walked and they did it at a slower pace and each grad got to pause on stage for a second. When they got to my daughter’s major they realized they needed to speed up and started calling the names way faster. By the time they got to the last major, they were practically running across the stage. It sucks that they didn’t find a happy medium from the start.

Even with the sadness and the irritation, it was a good week. We had a good meal out to celebrate Wednesday night, We had a nice lunch out near my son’s condo on Friday. Now the real world is back and I have to mow my very tall, wet grass today before it rains again tonight.