MeMadeMay13 End of week 3 and Graduation

When we last met I had lost this dress : ( And then I found it : ) I don’t know how big this pic is on your screen but maybe you can see I’m holding the program from Brittany’s commencement?

She’s the one in the red hair smiling with thumbs up : )

And here we are after her ceremony, just after we took our “bent twig” photo.

What is a bent twig?

“Any current Mills student related to a Mills alumna. The term comes from the quote by Alexander Pope: “’Tis education forms the common mind; just
as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.’ “

I’m not usually a big fan of commencements. I would have skipped my own if I didn’t get the traditional “You will attend because I’ve waited for YEARS for this!” lecture. I now see what my mother meant and yes, she is *almost* always right.

Part of my reluctance in attending these things are the speeches that I never seemed to have a connection to/with. I remember suffering through high school speeches while sitting in blinding afternoon sun (yawn) and don’t even remember who spoke at my own college commencement but I DO remember being very happy I was done!

Brittany’s ceremony featured Holly Gordon, the woman who helped produce the award winning documentary “Girl Rising“. Her message, which you can see in a podcast here, boils down to this “Just do SOMETHING”. She told stories of her own travels, how she got her start and even though her journey has not been what you might think of as a “straight” line it was what was necessary to get to where she is today.

That’s what she wanted to tell everyone that day. Take chances, take a trip, take on something that may not seem to be in your path because your path may change. One thing is almost certain and that is life isn’t linear.

If you click on the link it should bring up a page with 7 webcasts – Graduate Student Speaker Steven Drouin was GOOD. And at the very bottom is an 18 second clip showing the students “flinging” their tubes full of pieces of tissue paper in their class color of red, with some gold and white thrown in for good measure : ) I have a handfull of tissue pieces in a bag in my drawer that in 30 years my grandkids will pull out and ask about…I hope.

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 I wore my dad’s mother’s high school graduation pin on my dress. I can’t help but think she would have been as proud as I am of my daughter and this was my way of taking my grandmother with me. The dress I wore she would have LOVED because of the purple but the other reason I wore it is because purple was my class color when I graduated. And because of the purple and the amount of walking I did I decided to wear my new purple velvet shoes:

Of course I took these pictures somewhat after the fact and someone had to check things out:

Then she moved right into the middle of the action:

And the she flopped down on the deck as if it was all too much to bear : )

While perusing the Mills facebook page I came across this picture of my daughter, who was sitting about 30 feet away from me. Because I’m an alumna I was able to march to the ceremony with the rest of the alumae who attended. They gave us caps and gowns and had us line up in order of our class year (one woman said “We’re getting closer to the front!”), and handed me a banner with my year on it that I made back when I was pregnant with Brittany! When the other women found out I actually had my daughter graduating they made sure, when she was in line to get her diploma, to cheer! Did I cry? Yep.

Lined up…

The site they use for graduation is where the Costume shop I lived in many years ago used to reside. Now they have an area they plant with an “M” and surround it by the graduating class color.

This journey, for both my daughter and myself, has not been linear. But it has brought us here today which is exactly where we both should be : )

10 thoughts on “MeMadeMay13 End of week 3 and Graduation

  1. This is a beautiful joyous post. Lovely 🙂 You both look totally gorgeous and those two photos of Brittany doing a thumbs up and then sitting radiating her beauty in the crowd are just perfect. I love that you two have matching colour sunglasses 🙂 and that you included your grandmother in the day. All the best to both of you with your bright futures.

  2. What a sweet moment…(your shoes are AWESOME!!!! & your dog remains completely adorbs) seeing the two of you so full of joy and reading your post about the experience made me tear up. I think it was the part about your grandma. I’ve been thinking lately how sad it is that I have so little connection to my ancestors. When I read your post it made me realize that some people are smart (& fortunate) enough to set things up so they get a bit more. It’s sad to me that I only know the tiniest bit about one set of my great grandparents. It’s just lovely that you brought the memory of Brittany’s great grandma along for this incredibly exciting day. It’s also thrilling that you carried the banner you made while pregnant with her…unbelievably neat sounding day Loran. Inspiring.

    • Thank you Pam, it was a great day : ) I was fortunate enough to know one of my sets of great grandparents growing up, I just took it for granted that everyone had all their relatives around. The pin from my grandmother is one of the few things I have of hers, when she died almost everything was donated to Goodwill and my dad didn’t let my mom “ask” for anything because it would “look” bad. I found that pin in my grandfather’s jewelry box when we cleaned his things out, many years after he and my grandmother had divorced and she died. My mother said it was fate that it was in a back corner and he never saw it otherwise I wouldn’t have it! This was the grandmother that taught me to sew : )
      This day was one of those days that, as a mother, I will never forget.

  3. Congratulations! I am sure you are proud of your daughters achievements… which in a sense they are also yours. Also, I am very happy for you that you found your dress, I was in despair when you mention on your previous post that you lost it. Did you also found your blue dress too?

    • Thank you Carla and NO, I have NOT found that blue dress yet! To be fair I haven’t started cleaning out and re-organizing closets yet either, too many fun sew-alongs to do.
      This was HUGE day for my daughter. She got very sick many years ago and we didn’t even know if she’d live this long so the mere fact that she’s here and is thriving is huge. If I think about it too much it makes me a little teary but I try to concentrate on the amazing amount of positive.

  4. So proud of both of you, and so happy too. Brittany’s going to do amazing things with her already-amazing self.

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