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5.09.2012

Yes, I'm Bragging

It's that time of year. It's that long-awaited season when one can make it through a busy intersection without having to sit out two traffic light changes. A time when there are fewer sirens and when cars driving by outside aren't accompanied by wall-rattling ba boom-boom, ba boom-booms. A time when one doesn't have to wait 35 minutes to get a table, nor plow through the supermarket aisles with the deftness of Captain Cook wending Endeavor through the Great Barrier Reef. The students have left town...



Our street is remarkably quieter as most of the houses are now empty, including the one next door, the one house that should never, ever encourage music appreciation. At least that's what Frank used to say.


"The only house in which music should never be played is the one next door."

This weekend Lauren is graduating from OU, which is in Norman, about an hour and a half south of us. We, of course, will be there. We've booked a hotel room for Heather and the two of us and will be leaving on Friday for her Phi Beta Kappa hooding and all of the commencement ceremonies. We'll return on Saturday evening. We're so proud of her! She's graduating summa cum laude and she won the Phi Beta Kappa scholarship.

After a summer rooming with Heather, here in Stillwater, she'll be off again to France, where she'll teach English for a year, and when she returns she'll buckle down to getting her Ph.D. at New York University. How can this be? How can our little girl be accomplishing all this? Oh, yes. She's now a young woman out to set the world on fire. And you know, I believe she'll do it.

Congratulations, Lauren. Your hunger for learning, your curiosity for all of life, and your diligent work ethic have set you on an exciting, rewarding path, one that I hope will take you many wondrous places, introduce you to many exciting people, and fill your life with satisfaction and meaning. You are an example of all that is right with your generation, one that I can't help but feel will set this world to rights. I'm so very proud of you.