Indiana University Class of 1979
05/20/2014
(Originally posted 5 years ago in May 2009 after attending my son Kamaron's graduation from IU. With all the college graduations happening this time of year, I recall my own very special day now 35 years ago....)
Has it really been 30 [now 35!] years ago? Celebrating my son's graduation from IU took me on a stroll down memory lane to my own graduation from Indiana University in May of 1979.
Many things were the same. Assembly Hall. Thousands of excited, ambitious young people ready to start their lives and change the world. Proud parents and grandparents jockeying for the perfect seat to watch their child.
I am always amazed at how every grad has an intense need to find their cheering section in the stands and wave at them, while every parent searches every face from her distant seat to spot her baby in his graduation garb. It is as if neither can rest until they find the other across the sea of people, and then once spotted, both can sit down and enjoy the ceremony. At my kids' graduations, people were using their cell phones and texting their locations to their loved ones. Back "in the day," it took a lot more effort to find each other, but somehow we always did.
I clearly remember that day in May. We lined up by school and degree in the nearby fieldhouse and we were herded to Assembly Hall like a group of cattle. Apparently time doesn't change that part, as Kamaron described that same scene to me 30 years later.
My close friend, Roger, was also receiving a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, so we managed to find each other and sit together.
Roger was also from Hagerstown, and the two of us started first grade together in 1963, graduated from Hagerstown High School together in 1975, and here we were graduating from college side by side in 1979. Roger was my connection to home during our years at IU, and we had a lot of great times carpooling back and forth. Roger is still teaching elementary school and coaching high school boys' basketball in a nearby school system.
At the time of my graduation, my future was pretty uncertain. I didn't have a job, and teaching prospects were dim. But I was excited nevertheless, and confident that I would find my dream job. (In fact, I did land a position back in my hometown, teaching second grade and coaching varsity volleyball).
I was the first in my family to graduate from college, so it was an extra-big deal. Even though my Grandpa House had passed away just two days before, Grandma House came to my graduation as she had planned. My Aunt Fredette was also there, along with my parents and siblings. It was a big day for all of us!
After the ceremony, we headed home (a 2-hour drive) and stopped for a splurge dinner at a fancy restaurant, The Derby in Indianapolis. Every time we drove to Bloomington, we would go by The Derby on the interstate and always said that someday we would eat there. Well, on that special day we did! It was the nicest (and most expensive!) restaurant we had ever eaten at... what an extravagant treat that was for all of us!
Wow! That was lifetimes ago, and yet the memories of that day are still fresh. I went on to get my Master of Science from IUPUI in the next couple of years and got married in 1980. Then, when I started having children in 1982, I traded in my second-grade classroom for the joys of motherhood and haven't looked back.
But even though I'm no longer teaching schoolchildren, my education is priceless to me! Every single day I have used the skills I learned... mentoring my own children, working with little ones at church, teaching Sunday School and Bible School and Bible Study throughout the years.
And of course, so many, many lessons learned outside the classroom, as I transitioned into adulthood. Special friendships and experiences that I wouldn't trade for the world!
Once a Hoosier, always a Hoosier! I will always be a proud alumnus, a member of the Indiana University Class of 1979.
Comments