Graduation Day

It seems like yesterday when Josh was playing in the yard with nothing but a bathing suit, cowboy boots and backyard dirt covering him; curly hair and a toothless smile finished off the blissful look of a four-year old who was yet to start school. Now he's 24, married, and will be walking with a slew of others from his Middle Tennessee State University's graduating class. His wife, Amber, graduated last year from MTSU, just a few months before they were married on my birthday in July.

Life is full of many graduations; some are small and almost unnoticeable--others are momentous and worthy of celebration. All of these incremental milestones of life add up and, before you know it, decades have passed. The only thing that sometimes shocks us into the reality that so much time has elapsed is by looking back at the photos and the ridiculous hair and clothes styles from the day.

Betsy and Adam will be married two years this July. I can remember when she was only months old, holding her in my arms as we anxiously waited in a Mobile hospital for test results regarding a stomach problem she had since birth. We were scared--two young kids with two young kids--until we found out that she would be just fine. We made it through that summer as we will make it through this summer and more after that. She and Adam are moving back to Franklin, TN, after he graduates from law school at the University of Memphis, just a day after Josh walks away with his undergrad degree.

As Alice Cooper sang in the early 70's, "School's out forever!" Most literally. I don't think any of us will be itching to make it back for another degree anytime soon. It'll take a few years to regain financial equilibrium after working hard to pay the college debt down. I guess if I wanted to teach, I could finish my Master's degree, started over a decade ago. The thought of that just makes me tired.

Anyway, it's Josh and Adam's graduation day this weekend. Congratulations, boys! Brenda and I will have a few folks over tomorrow to celebrate. We will certainly take pictures, giving us the opportunity, in twenty years or so, to once again balk at the way we looked back in the day.