20 years down

Like a husband only remembering his wedding anniversary as the day arrives, so did I not remember until Friday that this May weekend marks the 20th year since my high school graduation.

(In the case you are just forgetting or perhaps were not alive at the time, I matriculated in the Age of Voluminous Hair.)

May 1991
Cando (ND) High School
Diploma with Honors
with Tonya Porter Anderson, still a friend today

Which thusly made me want to dig out the photos of other graduations. Here's from 4 years (and many all-night paper sessions and much less hairdo) later:

April 1995
Concordia College, Moorhead MN
BA magna cum laude in English & History
with freshman-floor friends Margaret, Suzanne & Lisa

And to the marquees of Boston's Tremont Street at the beginning of what came to seem like a whole other lifetime....

May 2002
Emerson College, Boston MA
MFA in Creative Writing
with Cousin J and Aunt B

A few days ago, my dear friend Mitch celebrated his completion of a PhD in Geography from Boston University. He invited Balint and me to his hooding ceremony.

I've known Mitch for most of the 6 years he put together this achievement. He's now freshly in the midst of figuring out what do with it, when his most-likely employer is a governmental organization looking to slash its budget. This picture reminds me how a graduation ceremony means nothing and everything: how it hardly encapsulates the emotions and effort and sacrifice that brought Mitch (and his cohorts) to that auditorium on that day but it overwhelms him (and us) to be reminded of them.

Kind of like forgetting that 20 years -- and how many more multipliers of emotions and efforts and sacrifice -- have gone by since high school. In all 3 pictures, I truly could not fathom what I was going to do next, except just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Which I guess is as good a metaphor as any for how I've handled things since.

Day 21 of 31: 5.2 miles

Day 22 of 31: 5.15 miles

May Total:  48.91

2011 Total: 261.11