I am going to be real with you. I am a parent of 6 people; the eldest is 30-something and the youngest just turned 18. You get to a certain age, after having so many children, when you hit these milestones, they are ... shall we say, numerous.
Today's ceremony was two fold, one started at 2pm, the other at 6:30pm. UCF is a huge school and this weekend, they have around 9000 graduates. Needless to say, it was a long day. Lots of people. LOTS OF PEOPLE. Sounds, smells, bumping into many, parking issues; it's overload.
I know; this isn't reading like a sappy graduation post. I'll get there, I promise. I never got the chance to do graduate from college; I had children early and my path took a different course. As did my other children; the started relatively soon too and hand other obstacles to overcome. They are doing great.
But Jaden and Reina (pictured above) are the first two of my children to graduate college. That's a huge deal. I am super proud of them. They have both put in the hours of study and practice and make the accomplishment look easy. They really do. They did it so well, that its easy to forget how big of an an accomplishment it really is.
So here's to the both of you:
The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
— David Foster Wallace
