The Graduate

I'm old enough to have a son who's a college freshman. Guess that's where the gray hairs came from.

Yesterday he graduated from high school. There were kids graduating cum laude, there were kids getting special awards, there was one kid with a 4.6 GPA (talk about spoiling the curve!). My son was not among these, he was just one of 150 in his class that got a tremendous education at a school known for diversity and rigor.

All but one of his classmates matriculates to university in the fall - that boy is weighing athletic scholarship options vs. a career in professional baseball. Few schools in the country (and sadly virtually no other in NM) cultivate that statistic.

Fourteen family members, most of whom live here in NM, attended graduation, had lunch together, then came here to the ranchero for cake, games of cards, dominoes, and catch, and sitting around and visiting. So often family gatherings are at funerals, it's a blessing to have a happy occasion to be together. One of my cousins has two young sons, and wondered aloud that she could "let go" as easily as we seem to be doing. I told her that at some point we came to understand that we weren't raising a child, we were raising an adult. There wasn't a single moment of transition or realization, it was an evolution and one day that's where we were. Anthony is a great human being, and although not all grown up, he is no longer a child.

My baby, yes, but no longer a child.

He's been from California to Connecticut, Canada and China, tasted the ocean and been lost in the clouds. He can laugh and cry and argue and sympathize... he's ready to go out into the world.

Good luck, godspeed, and have the time of your life.