The Graduate

Yes. That is me! Obviously there are strings attached to this statement, but for the most part, I am a COLLEGE GRADUATE. Huzzah!! Hooray! Praise GOD! And all those other things we could shout in a moment like this. While yes... it was already 4 days since I walked, I still feel great about it. There is a weight lifted off my shoulders that is inconceivable. Don't get me wrong. School was great. I've loved having the opportunity (or forcing my way in really) of going and getting this extra knowledge put into my little head. Some stuff felt pointless, but there are things you can't take back. Professor Alsdurf really taught me about journalism and being an ethical writer. She was with me throughout the entire struggle and I love her for that. Professor Horstman taught me to use my creativity and really to question the things I read. He was funny and made my time at Bethel easy-going (especially when I was in his classes). Bill... oh Bill. He may not have been a professional be he started when I did and that's comforting. We may have butted heads because I was never very professional and was hard to keep focused, but I think we clicked on a personal level.

There are few others that I really hold high in my Bethel career, but those are the tops for me. I also wanted to talk a little bit about the speaker at my graduation because he said something that made me WANT to remember something. His name is Dan Taylor and he had been a professor at Bethel for 33 years! That's longer than I've been alive! Can you imagine?!First he said this:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

Well okay, he didn't FIRST say that... but he said it. And it was deep and moving and set at the perfect time to say it. He was really funny for the first 10 minutes of his speech. He joked about how nobody ever remember what the speakers say at graduations and that he should say something profound. So then he continued to say "blahblahblah cafeteria food blahblahblah good education blahblahblah peace" and so forth! SO FUNNY! He had the whole audience laughing. And then he talked about how he was a kid from the '60's and that they only gave him 15 minutes to talk, well he'll talk for 18th. He did get serious though. He talked about be shalom in the world. What does that mean exactly? It means to go out there and live for God and do it in everything you do. And he said that we are never unemployed. Meaning we may be in between job, recently fired, laid off, looking for a job, etc. But we are ALWAYS employed for God. We should be working for Him at all times no matter where we are. It was awesome. I think that's all I remember from his speech. Good thing I'm writing it down huh? ;)

The two best things about the day: 1) I had mom, DAD, Holly, Seward, Justin, and Alyssa at my graduation. I loved it. My mom told me that dad might not be able to come cuz he was panicking, but he CAME! I was so excited. There was something moving about him being there. He's missed so many things in my life that I think I just figured he'd skip yet another thing in my life. But it made a difference that he was there and I let him know that. And of course, I had half friends and half family at the graduation. Very typical. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way though. These are the people that mean a lot to me and I want them apart of this momentous occasion. We got to go out to lunch at Don Pablos too and that was some goooood food.

2) I got to watch Justin, Alyssa, Jesse, and Mary Velasco graduate. I'm more than thrilled to watch other people walk because I get to be with them when they have just accomplished something HUGE. With Justin... it was big. I mean I've known him for so long and I watched him walk at his first graduation, watched him give that heartbreaking speech about Travis, and watched him be acknowledged as the Valedictorian. And now I watched him graduate with three majors, two minors, and summa cum laude. He's smart and he's worked hard for everything he has done. And obviously Alyssa I'd wanna watch because she's been the Bethel friend that has been a very good friend! AND my next year living buddy.

So yah, that was my wonderful weekend. The Knapps also took me out to dinner too and that was fun. I love spending time with them. They are my second family. :)

In other news....I took Nate and Camry's engagement photos! Mind you I know that I have no experience whatsoever and that I did it for free so that I could learn, but they were very gracious about it and even bought me dinner since I spent like three hours taking photos. And I had Alyssa be my little assistant which made my job easier. They were great to take photos of.

Okay, there's a "teddy bear terror" here and it's not letting me be! Later folks! Thanks for being here with me through it all!

Amy