On a Personal Note...One Proud Mom!

Oh, this was so fun!  Yep, this is all about bragging.  I just got back to Orlando tonight from attending my son's college graduation in Maryland

The graduation was at the gorgeous Gaylord National Harbor Hotel and what a graduation it was!

This was the grand finale of a long journey.  My son got his Associate of Arts degree straight out of high school, I had always hoped he would get his bachelors, but as many of you parents know, you can't make your kids do anything.

So over the years he changed majors a few times, took classes here and there, switched schools a couple times, had some great jobs and not so great jobs and well, I always hoped....One day, maybe, he would get his bachelors........Then....

Two and a half years ago when he moved to DC he found a school and a major that interested him and he went back to school full time and he started checking off the classes one by one, semester by semester and.... He was getting A's and more A's, and more A's. 

This was no easy task, here he was in a new town with a new full time job and going to school full time.  He had no time for friends and a social life, there was no time to play and explore his new city, no time for much needed vacations.  He kept his nose to the grind stone, his whole life was work and study.  The few times I visited I knew he was stressed.  There was times I thought he was in over his head, but he was a man on a mission!

Then the day came!

I knew it was coming.... He called one afternoon...Well, I'll never forget it..."Mom, I'm done, I just finished my last class"...Now, I'm not generally a crier and I have no idea where it came from so I surprised myself when...I burst out crying!   Then through my tears I heard him say "I got an A in the last class, Mom, I'm graduating with a 4.0

These are the buttons that popped right off my shirt as I puffed my chest with pride.....

 And watched him walk across the stage to get his diploma

Yep, he graduated with honors, in the top 1.8% of his class of 3248

Forever and ever he's earned the bragging rights of saying he graduated......

 Summa cum laude

National Society of Collegiate Scholars

Golden Key International Honour Society

Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society

(Wife Alicia, Brad, Me, Grandma)

I want to share some advice that I often tell friends who have adult children leaving home for the first time.   

You can love, guide, and encourage them, (Beg, plead), and offer advice.  But, they are adults and you will quickly find you can't live their life.  You can't make them take a certain major, choose their career path, live vicariously through them, or choose their friends and interests.....But this isn't bad, 

I'm proud to say I raised a strong child who is not easily swayed by parents and peers, one that has a plan and follows through, that has strong convictions, sticks to them, and charts his own life's course....... You have to let them fly and ......They may just  surprise you!

...Congratulations Bradley!!!!

Ok, the bragging has officially ended, barf, barf, gag, gag......I just couldn't help myself, this was a really, really, big event in our lives!

Carol