Everything leading up to this graduation has felt like a water droplet in suspension. Will it ever be over? Will he/she/I get a job? It's been a long time coming, and the wait of possibility is finished. Finished for the time being.
The university had Punky Brewster and Bigbad's department graduations at the same time in different buildings. Bigbad wanted things to be easy, and I didn't want to have to choose which to go to, so they both attended the enormous university wide ceremony. Despite the thousands in attendance, we were still able to spot Bigbad and Punky Brewster.
The ceremony was long (it took over 50 minutes for the graduates to proceed in). Thank the ever loving Lord, the band did not play Pomp & Circumstance once. They seemed to favor more adventure movie scores. The ceremony had some awkward moments during speeches when I'm sure everyone turned to their neighbor and wondered if they were filming commercials for various products and companies, but overall the mood was one of excessive pride and wonderful energy.
See the two rows in front of Bigbad? Those are newly commissioned officers from the NCSU's ROTC. In front of them are the valedictorians of the colleges (students with over 100 credit hours and a perfect GPA). The vet school graduates seem to have a competition every year on who can out do everyone on decorating their mortarboard. These caps had balloons, animated toys, helmets, and flamingos, and all sorts of zany creations. And twice, the forever alums were honored. They were NCSU graduates from at least 50 years ago. Some pride lasts a lifetime I suppose.
Both Punky Brewster and Bigbad had some serious school pride going on with their wardrobe selections. Punky Brewster had her fan feet heels on (I wore mine--obviously not NCSU to the large ceremony to balance out all the State pride). Bigbad wore his wolf tie that came from Bigbad Papa's collection.
We all got together (and when I say all--I mean me, Bigbad, Smallgood Granny & Pop, the Bigbad parents, Smallgood parents, Tempest Mermaid, and one of Punky Brewster's graduating buddies) to mark the celebration with a dinner at Klara's and a gift exchange.

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| We had to get a new family portrait. And finally you see a new photo of the Rocker. Seven and a half post secondary degrees among us.We're racking them up. |
And now, what's next? What is the after now that we are no longer suspended in the various stages of denial and unbelief and terror that is graduating? Punky Brewster is job hunting while simultaneously packing to likely make a big cross country move. Bigbad is job hunting and playing the bajesus out of Defiance.
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