Summa Cum Laude

The reason behind my brother’s visit was that he was to be the family rep for the big day… my actual graduation ceremony. And a fine rep he was. He and Kimono Hubby sat on the aisle towards the back and made it their goal to be the first to applaud each person for their accomplishment. Now, you must understand that separate, my husband and my brother can be quite mischievous. Together, they are downright trouble. Certainly clapping each degree recipient was a very good thing; and I am glad that they were so into it. Yet, what I can’t get past is that they tried hard to push up the clapping with each person… clapping loud enough and quickly enough to be the leaders in every single round of applause. With a little over a hundred graduating this day, that is a lot of applause. And they got their kicks out of this! Big kicks! Together, these two can seriously amuse. Themselves especially.

But in all seriousness, it was wonderful having my brother attend this special day with my husband. The truth is that I never wanted to go to the ceremony and had every intention of skipping it. Then both my mom and husband began pushing for me to go. Mom was making plans to come to Japan for it with my brother. And KH, well he never went to his own ceremony, so I still don’t get why he was gearing so hard for me to go to mine. In the end, I obviously caved because it seemed important to both of them.

Then for the months leading up to it, I dreaded it constantly and tried hard not to think about it. When my grandfather was placed in Hospice and then passed away not long after, it just didn’t seem the time for my mom and brother to fly over for this. In the end, he decided to make the trip anyway while mom stayed behind to help his wife and kids in his absence. It all worked out quite nicely! Although, I still had the stage walk to deal with.

So it was a good night. I walked the plank. I didn’t trip. They handed me that fake degree. I shook hands with the President of University of Maryland University College (UMUC) Susan C. Aldridge, Vice Commander of the 5^th Air Force and Deputy Commander of the 13^th Air Force Major General Larry D. James and several others. Oh, yeah… and I graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Not bad for just shy of a decade’s work.