Sunday, May 27, 2007
I traveled down to Charlottesville last Saturday for the Wesley baccalaureate and graduation for the class of 2007. I arrived in Charlottesville around 3 PM, several hours prior to the Wesley dinner for all the graduates... headed to the Foundation and saw Joel, Jimbo, David L. and Meg preparing the meal. I ended up suckering myself into helping out with preparing and serving the meal for the graduates :P But it was nice to see everyone again, being able to see many of my old "Wahoo" friends one last time before they took the infamous walk down the lawn. Oh, so many memories of C'ville all came back... the Thursday night dinners at Wesley, listening to Jimbo's infamous sarcasm, memories of the Wesley Community, the Little John's "second dinners" in the middle of the night, and of course Crossroads. Perhaps life does tend to become fairly routine after graduation, and one forgets the incredible diversity of activities that go on when you're at college.
This class is the largest graduating class from Wesley in quite some time (evidenced by the short-handedness of the servers at the graduation dinner). It was said at the baccalaureate service that the Foundation will go on even after this class leaves... although personally I think it will take some time to "recuperate", because this graduating class has meant so much to the Foundation. Especially Geoff, Aaron, and Alex, my roommates and/or good friends during my 3rd & 4th years, were incredible leaders to the Foundation, organizing so many activities that brought us all together (movie nights, football games, Super Bowl parties, IM sports, worship activities, and more)... they will surely be missed around C'Ville. [Well, technically Alex may not be leaving C'Ville :-) ] Certainly I doubt that C'Ville or the Foundation will ever be the same for me, as the majority of my close friends at college were from this graduating class.
Plans for the future for some are still up in the air, while others seem to be pretty well planned out. Alex is planning on working for an engineering/construction company in C'Ville, Leigha is planning on doing some traveling for a while, and Ashlee has jumped back on the pre-med bandwagon. (Wow.)
John Grisham, the speaker at graduation on the lawn, had an several important message for the graduates which I think speak to many of us: you can't plan your future. (Along with telling us that it's up to our generation to save the environment) There were certainly more memorable parts of Grisham's speech, such as his statistics that out of the 6000 or so graduating, 42 of the graduates will be giving speeches at other ceremonies... without any particular demographic breakdown to the 42. But for success, he said, there were three things necessary: talent, perseverance, and luck. I certainly wish all the graduates the best as they move on with the next phase of their lives. Wahoo-wa!
This class is the largest graduating class from Wesley in quite some time (evidenced by the short-handedness of the servers at the graduation dinner). It was said at the baccalaureate service that the Foundation will go on even after this class leaves... although personally I think it will take some time to "recuperate", because this graduating class has meant so much to the Foundation. Especially Geoff, Aaron, and Alex, my roommates and/or good friends during my 3rd & 4th years, were incredible leaders to the Foundation, organizing so many activities that brought us all together (movie nights, football games, Super Bowl parties, IM sports, worship activities, and more)... they will surely be missed around C'Ville. [Well, technically Alex may not be leaving C'Ville :-) ] Certainly I doubt that C'Ville or the Foundation will ever be the same for me, as the majority of my close friends at college were from this graduating class.
Plans for the future for some are still up in the air, while others seem to be pretty well planned out. Alex is planning on working for an engineering/construction company in C'Ville, Leigha is planning on doing some traveling for a while, and Ashlee has jumped back on the pre-med bandwagon. (Wow.)
John Grisham, the speaker at graduation on the lawn, had an several important message for the graduates which I think speak to many of us: you can't plan your future. (Along with telling us that it's up to our generation to save the environment) There were certainly more memorable parts of Grisham's speech, such as his statistics that out of the 6000 or so graduating, 42 of the graduates will be giving speeches at other ceremonies... without any particular demographic breakdown to the 42. But for success, he said, there were three things necessary: talent, perseverance, and luck. I certainly wish all the graduates the best as they move on with the next phase of their lives. Wahoo-wa!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
"It's nice to know that now there are two people in the family with college degrees." - my parents
(I corrected them; they have college degrees as well so actually there are four)
My family and I went down to Houston this weekend for my brother's graduation from University of Houston. The ceremony was very nice, taking place in U of H's basketball stadium. The student speakers at the ceremony gave some very nice speeches, although one of the speakers was trying very hard to be overly eloquent, and as a result I noticed that he used the word "irrevelant" [sic].
About 1000 degrees were handed out by department in "reverse alphabetical order" at the liberal arts ceremony which my brother was part of (sorry, Anthro majors!) My brother was a history major so he was kind of in the middle of the pack. After the ceremony we all met outside the basketball stadium and took pic after pic of the special occasion, with the new graduate of the family. :-)
My stomach was being very difficult in Texas, but overall we had a pretty nice time. We visited an arboretum, where I attempted to give my parents a crash course in some useful French phrases; they are taking a trip with the church choir to France in a couple weeks. (I'm surprised I actually remember any French, granted it's not very much that I remember!) We also visited the apartment my brother has lived in for the past several months (and in the meantime, scoping out what he would need to transport out of the apartment!) It may be the last time our family ever gets down to the great state of Texas, as my brother is planning on coming back up north, actually further north than us! (Taking up a job in either New Hampshire or New York). Granted, with all the highways that you have to go on traveling through the great state of Texas, moving away from it may not necessarily be a bad thing.
(I corrected them; they have college degrees as well so actually there are four)
My family and I went down to Houston this weekend for my brother's graduation from University of Houston. The ceremony was very nice, taking place in U of H's basketball stadium. The student speakers at the ceremony gave some very nice speeches, although one of the speakers was trying very hard to be overly eloquent, and as a result I noticed that he used the word "irrevelant" [sic].
About 1000 degrees were handed out by department in "reverse alphabetical order" at the liberal arts ceremony which my brother was part of (sorry, Anthro majors!) My brother was a history major so he was kind of in the middle of the pack. After the ceremony we all met outside the basketball stadium and took pic after pic of the special occasion, with the new graduate of the family. :-)
My stomach was being very difficult in Texas, but overall we had a pretty nice time. We visited an arboretum, where I attempted to give my parents a crash course in some useful French phrases; they are taking a trip with the church choir to France in a couple weeks. (I'm surprised I actually remember any French, granted it's not very much that I remember!) We also visited the apartment my brother has lived in for the past several months (and in the meantime, scoping out what he would need to transport out of the apartment!) It may be the last time our family ever gets down to the great state of Texas, as my brother is planning on coming back up north, actually further north than us! (Taking up a job in either New Hampshire or New York). Granted, with all the highways that you have to go on traveling through the great state of Texas, moving away from it may not necessarily be a bad thing.
