Graduation

Done. Finally done. All the grading, all the paperwork...done.

My last duty for the semester was to attend graduation at the community college last night. Of course, it was the hottest day of the year so far (106 degrees!) and the ceremony was outside, but it was worth it to see all the happy faces. A couple of stories:

• I had an extremely shy student this past year in astronomy. So shy she could barely make eye contact with me and very seldom spoke to other students. Good student, though, but hard to draw out. You should have seen her at graduation last night - beautiful bright smile. She looked so happy! Congrats, Heather!
• One of the most amazing moments at graduation is when those graduates who are the first in their family to earn a post-secondary degree are asked to stand. About 50% of the students stand up, and I noticed one of my best students from this semester amongst them. During the recessional out of the ceremony, I saw his folks taking pictures of him, all so happy. Congrats, Justin!

I was too busy to get to the graduation ceremony at the university, which meant that I missed the graduation of two of my former students. A few more stories for you:

• Eight years ago, during my year as an adjunct faculty, I had a student who was afraid of science and math. She came back the next year, though, for the second semester of astronomy, and she made it through, quite well I must add. We've kept in touch over the years, through some rough times for her, but I remember how happy she looked at her community college graduation. I can only imagine how she must have been glowing yesterday, receiving her Bachelors! Congrats, Sarah!
• And now on to my Padawan. First he battled with the question, engineering or physics? The choice was obvious to all rational people, and he soon figured it out, too. ;) Yesterday, he graduated with a B.S. in Physics and will be starting at graduate school at Brown at the end of this month to do research in dark matter physics! The Dark Side lured him and won! I couldn't be more proud. I know he'll do great! Congrats, Carlos!