Graduation Whirlwind

It was a cold fall day back 1984. Can you believe the BYU Cougars football team was on a championship tear that would end with a national championship and I walked with my brother and sisters to my first day of kindergarten at Lydia Jackson Elementary. There have been precious few breaks along the way since then. (if you call two years away from school serving a church mission to South Chicago a break you deserve to reproduce that feat and then come talk to me.)

Well folks out there in blog-land, Saturday April 14th 2007 that journey came to an end. Now I am not saying that there wont be countless post-grad classes and seminars, (why even now I am enrolled in a hundred hour course to become a certified Chiropractic Sports Physician) but on Saturday my days as a full time student came to close, and class is in session for the school of hard knocks.

It was an interesting weekend, highlighted by official functions like graduation rehearsal, signing all the right school forms and of course registering my prints with the FBI- good thing I was careful about what I touched as a rambunctious youth. There were also more lighthearted events like families getting together and eating too much food and getting a little brave with a roving mariachi group.......Lets just say that during the course of one meal I got to see my mother-in-law don a large sombrero and Erika's uncle give a rousing solo ( in perfect Spanish) to the sound of a fiddle a guitar and one of those huge acoustic basses. There was also what I will be referring to forever as the Chiro-prom. With the accumulated class fund a select few of my classmates went about organizing a dinner on the rear deck of the Queen Mary. It was good to see all my classmates......even if it meant seeing them in that light one more time. There was some great food and the obligatory slide show that to my surprise was missing all of the graduation classics.......You know them, heck you are probably humming one right now just thinking about it. But alas no "I will remember you" or that green day song that always get played. Not even a cameo from Boyz II Men or even that freakin vitamin C travesty that everyone loves. No, at least at the time the slide show was being produced cooler heads prevailed. I got a couple of class awards that highlighted my leaning towards some of the more classical tenents of chiropractic. (namely most likely to have a large picture or bust of BJ Palmer in my office, and Most likely to take a teaching job at Sherman Straight College of Chiropractic) Both were good hearted jabs but I would put the well rounded nature of my own educational experience up against any of theirs.....well except Mellisa. That girl is a genius.

The actual ceremony of graduation was in classic form far too long while seated in the auditorium and over far too soon once I was holding my diploma and saying goodbye to my classmates.
In all seriousness I will miss this tight knit group of people who formed a large dysfunctional family for 3 years. Not just because I worry about who will understand my weird sense of humor (Erika has been tired of it for years now so she's out) but there is something about going through something as difficult as the last three years have been with a relatively small group of people that forever binds them together. I am sure there is some sort of name for it in the annals of psychology somewhere............shoot, I bet Melissa knows. Maybe I'll call her.