Our grandson Quentin’s commencement ceremony at the University of Nevada, Reno, was yesterday afternoon. We were able to attend, sort of, thanks to UNR’s YouTube channel, where it was live-streamed. His proud parents, our son Gregory and daughter-in-law Beth, were there in person. Thank goodness they messaged these photos to us, because the ones I took of Quentin crossing the stage on our TV are blurry at best.
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Congratulations to Quentin and his proud parents! Full disclosure: finals aren’t until next week, so Q and his hundreds of fellow baccalaureats aren’t quite done yet!
Back in the day, I elected not to cross the stage for my degree at Sacramento State. Donna and I were on our own in California, my parents and sisters thousands of miles away. But Donna had worked to put me through college and I should have done it for her. Then, too, Donna had family in California, but I never thought of them. Shame on me.
Years later, when our son graduated from the University of South Florida, we were stationed in Okinawa and couldn’t realistically attend, so we bought Gregory a round-trip ticket to visit us in Japan after the ceremony. A few months later, while we were still on Okinawa, Donna got her own degree from the University of Maryland Global Campus, which offers college courses at U.S. military bases overseas … her diploma came in the mail, same as mine.
Quentin’s plans? We don’t know! I don’t know if he does … but I’m confident he’ll do well in life, whatever path he chooses.