An Ivy League Graduation

Monday was all-day graduation. We started at 8am and did not finish until around 10pm. It was a great day.

We got up and ready for the day and took an uber over to Penn. The graduates all took part in a large processional down locus walk. We wanted to see Bret walk so we stood along locus walk. With the help of finding my friends, we were able to find Bret and cheer him on as he marched with his friends.

After Bret passed we headed over to Franklin Field for commencement. Franklin field is Penn's football stadium. It is a really cool old stadium Franklin field was built in the early 1900s. The Philadelphia Eagles used to play games in this stadium. As far as football stadiums go it is pretty small. It sits probably around 25,000 people. By the time we arrived the seats on the first level were pretty well filled up so we moved up to the second level. There were plenty of seats – we were, however, about as far from Bret as we could get.

The commencement was carried on with all of the grand pomp and circumstance you would expect from the Ivy Leagues. The graduates marched in and took their seats. There was then a parade of speakers.

The first speaker was Amy Gutmann, the President of Penn. She spoke often throughout the ceremony and did a fantastic job. She had three main messages for the graduates – 1. Save lives 2. Use your freedom and 3. Seek the sublime. She encourages them to find the things that make their spirits soar.  She also encouraged them to use their freedom well as they will be defined by the choices that they make. These messages resonated with me.

The keynote speaker was US Senator Cory Booker. During his introduction, the Provost doing the introduction made the point that we should consider the spaces between the lines on our resumes. I loved this idea – that while work, education, and experiences are important there is more to a person than those bullet points.

Cory Booker was exceptional. The theme of his message was creative compassion. He asked us to make a world of change for the people we encounter every day. He also challenged us to do a little bit of good where we are because a little bit of good put together will change the world. He warned against stripping someone of their humanity by reducing them to labels or biases. He encouraged us to disagree and argue but to still find common ground. He also said life, “is not about celebrity, it is about significance.” And that “it is not about how many show up when you die, but how many people you show up for while you are alive.” I was very inspired. As I considered the stories and ideas Senator Booker shared I wanted to try to apply some of the things he proposed and follow my dreams.

After commencement was over we met up with Bret and walked over to one of his favorite restaurants – Shanghai Station. It was this great Chinese place right off of campus. We ordered family style and had quite the spread. It was the perfect post-graduation lunch.

We stopped by Bret’s apartment so that we could all check it out. It was very nice.

We headed back to campus. We just walked around enjoying the beautiful atmosphere of Penn and taking graduation pictures. There were some great pictures. Probably the funniest one was when Kristin decided that she and her siblings should spell Penn with their hands. Hilarity ensued. When I think of that moment, I think of Jake explaining why it was not feasible for him to make an n with his hand, and demonstrating how to do it with the middle finger. Debbie also wanted to get a jumping picture of all her graduates. The siblings in these pictures have 7 bachelors’ degrees, 3 masters’ degrees, and 1 more master’s degree in progress.

Our next stop was the Penn bookstore. We accidentally promised Skylee a cookie and that was the best place to find one. We chilled there for a while until it was time for Bret to go get ready for graduation. Jake and Meg also had to leave us so that they could catch their flight to Ireland.

We had one more ceremony that night. It was the convocation for Bret’s school. At this point, I think we were all pretty done with graduations and we thought there was almost no chance that Skylee would make it through the program. She was so good. She colored the whole time. The rest of us sat patiently waiting so we could scream and cheer as Bret walked across the stage –it was totally worth the wait. We were all so proud.

After convocation, there was a reception with food and mingling. We ate food and we were ready to call it a night. It was a really fun day celebrating Bret’s accomplishments.