On Saturday, I'll be reaching a milestone in my life. I'm going to be graduating. I've completed my bachelor's degree after lots of studying and I can't believe that it's done. This is something that I've wanted to complete for a while and now the end of this chapter in my life has come.
I went to university when I first graduated from high school, but I left because I got bored and I just started working. I was lucky because things worked out for me. However, always in the back of my mind, I thought that someday I'd go back and complete what I started. It's been an interesting journey and I'm glad that I made the decision to go back to study.
I'm finding that it hasn't sunken in yet that this moment has come. I guess that it'll feel real when I'm there walking across the stage. I'll surely be thinking of my mom and dad at that moment and I'll be wishing that they were there. But I know that I carry them with me in my heart always, so they will be there.
We're on our way to London today in preparation for Saturday and I'll let you all know how it goes when I return home. It's always interesting to go to London, so I'm sure I'll have a story to share.
I had planned to blog today about one of my new favorite things as I mentioned in my previous post. However, that has now been bumped to my next post. Something happened yesterday that I want to highlight because it warms my heart every time. I guess in a roundabout way you could say this is a post about a favorite thing after all :-)
Yesterday, President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to fifteen honorees at the White House. This is the highest civilian honor given in the United States. I always love when this ceremony comes around because I love getting the chance to see who is honored and also to really “see” these people. When I watch this ceremony I always look at each and every face and it’s like you can almost feel the honor along with them. Their life’s work is laid out in front of them at that moment for the world to see, but most importantly, for them to see the great expanse of their own lives. In those moments, I see their humanity and I feel my own.
Often I will know several of the recipients, but there are many that I’m usually becoming aware of for the first time. I’m always drawn afterwards to learn more about the contributions of these extraordinary people. That is what I love about this award…you have the well-known and the unsung who are honored. These people have just been themselves and served in their own ways and that is a what life is all about as I see it.
The honorees this year are as follows:
Rep. John Lewis – civil rights icon (He was called early in life to do the right thing)
Maya Angelou – poet, author (I’d love to have her gift for words)
Yo-Yo Ma – amazing cellist (Listening to him play makes me want to play music again, even more. By the way, I played the flute in a former life ;-) )
John H. Adams – Natural Resources Defense Council – Co-founder
Bill Russell – NBA Hall of Famer, basketball legend, and human rights activist
Stan Musial – Baseball legend of the St. Louis Cardinals
Angela Merkel – German Chancellor
Jasper Johns – artist; considered a major influence upon pop, minimalist, and conceptual art
Gerda Weissmann Klein – Holocaust Survivor
Dr. Tom Little – optometrist killed in Afghanistan while on humanitarian mission
Sylvia Mendez – civil rights activist
Jean Kennedy Smith – Former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland
I just wanted to update you all on what has happened since my last post. Well I’m pleased to share that I have found out that not only did I pass my course, but I’ll receive a Diploma with Distinction for completing my course! :-) Finding this out was beautiful icing on an already wonderful cake. As I said in my previous post, I already felt like I’d made the grade even before I knew how my result would be. I learned a very valuable lesson.
Still, I’m very pleased with my result and now I’m just looking forward to whatever is next. Brit Boy and I went out for lunch yesterday to celebrate my accomplishment and it was just really wonderful to do that. Life is amazing and it should be celebrated and I think that when you reach milestones like this, you should take a moment and enjoy that moment, so I did :-)
I hope that everyone has a great weekend and hey, if you have a moment, stop by my other blog. I like to post music there from time to time that I have fond memories of, so I hope you enjoy my offering for today!
