Year 2 Days 152 -154 Graduation

Today, our niece’s son, Brendan, formally graduated high school.  As proud relatives, we joined his family and friends and attended his graduation ceremony.  It was a two-hour affair filled with a number of very nice speeches presented by students and facility along with songs sung by students.  It was followed by a tasty spread of hors d’oeuvre and deserts.

The family and friends celebration continued at a tapas restaurant hosted by Brendan’s parents where a stream of tapas kept coming and coming and coming.  I think they would be still coming if enough of us had not started waving to the service staff to stop because we just could not eat anymore!

It was a lovely day, spending this special moment with family, even though Washington DC was once again deluged by another massive storm.  It rained and rained, causing some serious flooding.  However, the wet weather did not dampen our spirits as everyone had a great time.

What made Brendan’s’ graduation so special to me was it fell on the 50^th year of my graduation.  Today, Brendan stands on the great precipice that marks the real beginning of rest of his life, with college, profession, a wife and family, all still in front of him.  And here I stand, looking back on the life that I have been fortunate to have, with college and profession behind me and a wonderful wife and family still wrapped around me.  I can only hope that Brendan can be so lucky as I have been.

There is another really cool part of this story.  It has to do with Brendan’s younger brother, Jamie and Mary Margaret.  You see, they also share this 50-year relationship as Jamie will graduate from high school next year in 2019 while Mary Margaret graduated in 1969, 50 years apart.  It is all about family!