We had a graduation without a speaker coming in from the outside; we had a student speaker. Nobody missed the outside speaker. I thought in these terms because once, long ago, when I was part of a graduation planning team, I argued for keeping the student speaker but not having an outside speaker, and my fellow planners argued that it would come across as disrespect if we didn't have an outside speaker, that people expected it. And so, some crony came to bleat about how wonderful he was and maybe these graduating students could be just like him if they were lucky--blhhh.
I am always happy to see students make their way across the stage. I often see students when they're at a less successful stage of student life, so it's wonderful to be reminded of happier possibilities.
I haven't been part of a morning graduation before--yesterday's was at 9 a.m. with crowds expected, so I left my house at 6:15. I spent much of the morning waiting and standing, because there weren't chairs in the gym where we assembled. I was back in my car at 10:50, and had time for a stop at the strawberry farm, where I got a basket of berries.
My folks came over for lunch, and we spent a lovely afternoon together, along with dinner at our house. We also had time together on Friday night.
On Friday night, there was a banquet at Lutheridge to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the camp. My mom was one of the first generation of camp counselors, and the camp invited her to give a short speech. We went to the banquet, Mom did a great job, and it was a lovely evening. I was surprised by how many people we knew--and then again, how many people we didn't know. We have lots of connections to Lutherans across the Carolinas, and many of them attended.
One of the people we knew but had never met in person was the couple who sold us the house we bought in the residential section. It was great to meet them, even though it was also a bit weird. I feel like we got a really good deal on the house. My spouse feels we paid about $10,000 too much, and he speculates that the couple who sold us the house might feel like we paid $10,000 too little. I suspect that they are relieved that we came along and wanted the house without much fuss (cash! no inspection!--perhaps I should have said with no fuss). They live 6 hours away, if there's no traffic, so it's not like they spent lots of time coming to their mountain retreat.
This morning we head to Bristol, Tennessee--the part-time minister job at Faith Lutheran continues, and it may for a lot longer. The church has been exploring ways to have a more full-time minister, but no success so far. I'm happy to be there as long as they want and need me--and I'm glad that I went ahead and started Confirmation class with those students.
Let me get ready.
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