Graduation at long last!
The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth that it prevents you from achieving. ~Russell Green
Aline writes: Well, we finally did it – we graduated from our master’s program.! Woo-hoo! Of course, Bill and I wouldn’t miss this long-anticipated (5 years) event, so we flew back for a week to attend graduation and finish up our theses.
It was a wonderful, clear, warm day, with that spectacular blue sky we never see in London. We went with our classmates to the big stadium graduation, meeting at 8:30 am! Of course, getting the thousands of graduates organized took a long time, and the actual graduation was only an hour.
On a lighter note, we kept somewhat cool with Bill’s personal fan/sprayer, which I borrowed a lot trying to keep cool in those long black gowns under that California sun. That, and balancing our programs on our heads to shade our faces, helped a little. There were A LOT of people there!
But it was Steve Jobs’ speech that was the most surprising – I guess I was expecting something more corporate, but it was very personal and affecting. Even though the news reports really got stuck on the “college is useless” theme, the speech was much more than that.
One of his final points:
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Who better to relate to those sentiments than someone who has spent five years getting an MLA degree? (I can’t count how many times have I been asked “what are you going to do with your degree?” Not by any of my friends, of course. But still. ☺) Maybe being in our 40’s and leaving our jobs to live in London for a year also makes it ring true to me.
But, of course, the highlight was our MLA program graduation, under the oak trees behind Memorial Church. Our family and many friends were there (thanks to Mom, Eric and Cindy, Kevin, Karen and Larry, Sara, Vivian, and Alex for coming!) Our program director, Linda, did a wonderful job introducing all the graduates and their thesis topics, making the event so personal for all of us. Getting to go through graduation with our friend Jen (all for one and one for all!) made it extra special.
Then a nice champagne reception afterwards, with strawberries, cream, sandwiches, etc. Yum! !
We were able to hand in our final thesis copies for binding within a few days, so we are finally, truly done! But the moment I felt like I was truly finished was when I went to the Stanford library with my giant suitcase full of books and returned them all. What a great feeling!!
Aline writes: Well, we finally did it – we graduated from our master’s program.! Woo-hoo! Of course, Bill and I wouldn’t miss this long-anticipated (5 years) event, so we flew back for a week to attend graduation and finish up our theses.
It was a wonderful, clear, warm day, with that spectacular blue sky we never see in London. We went with our classmates to the big stadium graduation, meeting at 8:30 am! Of course, getting the thousands of graduates organized took a long time, and the actual graduation was only an hour.
On a lighter note, we kept somewhat cool with Bill’s personal fan/sprayer, which I borrowed a lot trying to keep cool in those long black gowns under that California sun. That, and balancing our programs on our heads to shade our faces, helped a little. There were A LOT of people there!
But it was Steve Jobs’ speech that was the most surprising – I guess I was expecting something more corporate, but it was very personal and affecting. Even though the news reports really got stuck on the “college is useless” theme, the speech was much more than that.
One of his final points:
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Who better to relate to those sentiments than someone who has spent five years getting an MLA degree? (I can’t count how many times have I been asked “what are you going to do with your degree?” Not by any of my friends, of course. But still. ☺) Maybe being in our 40’s and leaving our jobs to live in London for a year also makes it ring true to me.
But, of course, the highlight was our MLA program graduation, under the oak trees behind Memorial Church. Our family and many friends were there (thanks to Mom, Eric and Cindy, Kevin, Karen and Larry, Sara, Vivian, and Alex for coming!) Our program director, Linda, did a wonderful job introducing all the graduates and their thesis topics, making the event so personal for all of us. Getting to go through graduation with our friend Jen (all for one and one for all!) made it extra special.
Then a nice champagne reception afterwards, with strawberries, cream, sandwiches, etc. Yum! !
We were able to hand in our final thesis copies for binding within a few days, so we are finally, truly done! But the moment I felt like I was truly finished was when I went to the Stanford library with my giant suitcase full of books and returned them all. What a great feeling!!
posted by Bill | 7:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home