Graduations, a bitter sweet celebration

Today will be the Fairfield University commencement for undergraduate and graduate students. I will see my first class of teachers turn their tassel after a semester of student teaching and after hosting them in several courses, as well as the achievement of Victor Harris, a senior who I've mentored since arriving to the campus. Victor is a relocated refugee who has been an international business major and worked diligently at sustaining a life for himself in a new nation through working as a residential assistant, a part time employee, and a summer intern - anything to make ends meet while he earned his diploma (with a few extensions granted for him to achieve what he's set out to do).

I do not have a a graduation gown or a cap, although I have my doctoral hood earned from Syracuse University last spring. I will be there for the ceremony, but given circumstances, I don't think I will attend the pomp and circumstance with my colleagues. Instead, I believe I will sit on the Bellarmine lawn in front of the presidential office as a spectator, cheering on the students I wish to congratulate. It seems like a step in the right direction, although it is also a sad reminder of the last week and all the emotions that came with it.

The class of 2013 lost a friend, too, this week when he was killed in an automobile accident. It is not the way stories are supposed to be written, but a reminder that we never know when chapters will shock us. I was told by a friend yesterday that she knows when things are amok in her life because she always has problems with her teeth and car. Well, I have a root canal scheduled for later this week and I did a number on my car Saturday night when scraping the cement wall that lines my driveway. Yes, I am both teeth and auto snafus this week. The indication that life has been rough is all over my world right now.

Even so, I will enjoy the party thrown for the achievement of graduates today.