Graduation Day

How do you commemorate a day that you have planned, prepared, worked, and dreamed about for 10 years? A lot of people don't like commemoration days like graduation because there is so much buildup and hype, there is no way that one day can possibly give you the satisfaction you desire after slaving away for so long and accomplishing so much. And it can also be depressing to think that you have accomplished your most difficult goal to date, only to turn around and realize that all it really did was prepare you for more even more difficult goals in the future. There will always be the hokie or lame (as my father stated) speech given by the class president that are so full of inside jokes that you wonder if you actually attended the same school, and the awards to those who accomplished so much that you wonder if they are in fact human...seriously.

Despite all this, I happened to really enjoy Tanner's graduation from law school. In fact, I was glad for the one or two speeches that I could tune out, because it allowed me to reflect on my own memories, our own experiences as a family, and it made me realize how great our life really is and has been.
Then there was the really great speech given by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and I recommend not only reading it, but watching it as well.

We are grateful to our parents who came out to celebrate Tanner's sucess. And thankfully they didn't just share A day with us. They shared in the entire experience with us.
Congratulations Tanner!