thoughts on graduating...

today i'm graduating from seminary... it's a big step and i think it's the end of my educational journey - within a structured academic institution, that is... i hope i don't ever quit learning - but i hope that from now on, the learning insights won't have to be typed, double-spaced in turabian form...

one of the girls i'm graduating with spoke at our graduate luncheon a few weeks ago... she said, "i don't think any of us thought we'd ever graduate..." - and i think she hit the nail on the head... i think i've been going and not really thinking about the finish line... i didn't know i was going to graduate until the end of last semester - that's when i switched degree programs and figured out that i'd be done now... so it kind of sprang up on me and i think it sprang up on others as well...

but today's the day - for 11 of us from my campus and 49 from the contextualized learning development (i think that's what cld stands for, anyway) students who have been going to a campus in portland... they're getting a diploma in christian ministries or something like that... so 60 of us, altogether, will walk across a stage, get a degree, turn the tassle and take another huge step in our lives...

i didn't really care about my college graduation, but at my high school graduation, i sat next to this guy named geoff... geoff was smart - he was m.i.t.-bound and had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of scholarships... he had been my lab partner in 10th grade biology - and was a really nice guy - kind of a geeky science type - but one of the friendliest people i knew... as we stood in line waiting to go in, i was questioning everything - why do we have to wear square caps - does that make us look smart? if this day makes us grown ups, why do we have to act like adults with all this formal stuff? why don't we go out and play in the playground and get it all out... an opportunity to play one last time..." geoff looked at me and said, "you're so smart..." i really don't think i'll ever forget that... he was cool...

as i've been thinking about graduating this time, i want to start humming the song - and the first song that pops in my head is not pomp and circumstance - and when i hear that tune i think of this silly song that i learned in jr. high - something about reindeer and bathtubs and cats and dogs and mary and old mcdonald - i know... weird...

today's the day - g-day...and now i need to go get ready...