Last Saturday our daughter graduated from college. For the second time. She already has a degree in Spanish and Latin American studies, but after working for a while, she’s decided she wants to be in a medical profession. So for the last two years she has carried around a backpack the size of a microwave, stuffed with books full of diagrams and language far more foreign to me than Spanish. It’s hard to remember that there was a time when we could actually help her with her homework.
She got her biology degree cum laude from Cleveland State, a big urban university. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of students graduated, in a ceremony held in a huge, cavernous space, yet the palpable joy of all the familes gathered around us made it feel intimate. Afterwards we all stood around outside taking photos, and I was glad all over again to live in this rusty, sturdy city where diversity is the norm. Families of every size and hue posed and smiled and hugged as the seagulls wheeled overhead, doing their raucous best to add to the celebration. Later we walked to our neighborhood Thai place and ate mango curry. It was a wonderful day.