Graduation

Most people wouldn't think that I'm a formal-event-type person, that a graduation ceremony would be something I'd attend. After all, why do we have to get gussied up and parade around with mortarboards to acknowledge what we've earned when *we* know what we've accomplished?

But this ceremony is one that matters, I think, as the concrete manifestation of our educational achievements.

And it's almost always a good celebration, even if ours is held in a hockey arena and feels like it: graduates and faculty down in an almost-pit, family members and friends on wooden bleachers without backs jutting out of concrete numbered steps. Even without regalia (didn't do the paperwork required since I'm just not on campus), I'll attend tonight, sitting on those bleachers, mingling after to shake students' hands. I expect to see some of my favorites -- I've been missing them this sabbatical!