Here's to the path carvers

Friday: sunshine, top down, brisk spring birds-a-chirp commute, Sigur Rós playing mezzo-loudo, and the weekend approaches. What more could a poor working lad wish?

Commencement this evening. While I'm not usually inclined to "give up" my Friday evening for something work-related after a full week of giving-at-the-office, Commencement is a worthy exception. A celebration of why we put the hours in here that we do, it is great to see so many of our students achieve their academic goals. For some, it has been a relatively easy series of steps toward a future already thought out and readily achievable. For many, though, getting to this point has been a series of challenges individually overcome. For many, it has not been the traditional path of university straight out of high school, of fraternity associations that will pave the well-connected way through life, of college simply as a rite of passage or fulfillment of the obvious expectations of friends and family.

I know that feeling, too. I was not a traditional-path college student, but a first-generation graduate who didn't complete his degrees until later in life and only after a long circuitous path. I didn't take college education for granted, but also didn't overly value it's importance as a measure of my worth (which had much to do with how long it took me to there, alas). I respect the struggles, internal and external, that many students face to get to this point.

So I will don my decorous dress, with it's complimentary colors indicating my degree (location and flavor) of academic accomplishment, but will wear my tennis shoes, too. In so many ways, these less-than-professional-standard shoes are my roots and they, too, are part of my journey-story.

I salute all our graduates this evening, those who walk, those who don't, and especially those who had to forge a unique path through a tradition-oriented process that still favors those who were born to it, and who made it through to this accomplishment. I sincerely hope we were there to help create those unique paths for and with each of you.

Today's full Sigur Rós playlist:
- Hjartö Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm)
- Mea Blóanasir
- All Alright
- Gong

- Posted via Hermes.