Congratulations CWU Graduates!

Last night, I attended CWU's graduation ceremony, held at Benaroya Hall in Downtown Seattle. Since I attended as a faculty member (hey--it's a great excuse to dress up in a robe and wear a funny hat), I was allowed backstage--probably the only time in my life I'll get to go backstage at a concert hall. Faculty were put into the musicians' greenroom to put on their robes and wait to go into the auditorium.

When I got there, there was some excitement backstage--a pigeon had gotten in, and the stagehands and staff members who were setting up were chasing it around, flapping brooms and waving towels at it, trying to either capture it or shoo it out the door. It was flying from one end of the entry hall to the other, trying to find a perch. Eventually, it perched on the drinking fountain (if you're even backstage at Benaroya hall, you might want to think twice about using the drinking fountain), noticed the open door, and flew out.

The ceremony itself was beautiful, and I couldn't have been more proud of the CWU students I knew who participated. I know how hard all of them worked to be there: the immigrant from Africa who earned his Master's degree while caring for a sick mother, the single mother who put herself through school while supporting two children, the lovely young woman who broke up with her boyfriend three weeks before finals and still aced all her classes, the pregnant woman who finished her Master's degree at the same time her husband finished his Bachelor's degree, the young woman who didn't think she'd finish this spring who spent at least two days a week in my office studying to pass her last class. There were hundreds of other success stories in the auditorium last night, and I feel privileged to have shared a small part in the success of some of them. To all the recent CWU graduates: congratulations! You worked very hard for your achievement, and you will go far.