graduation '08

graduation day is like a birthday, except you don't have as many graduations as birthdays, and you get to share yours with thousands of others around you. that - i think - makes it that much more special :). there's no day that brings the stanford campus more to life than graduation day - not the first day of the school year, and not when stanford's just beaten cal in the big game. this year's graduation day was no different (and i feel most fortunate to have experienced the thrill of being a graduate in the stanford football stadium all of two times :). last time i had not guessed i'd ever be back. this time i know i shall not be - well, at least not for another degree. that, in some sense, makes things a little more final this time...

oprah was the speaker, and generous enough to give each graduate two good books. (that is about 8,000 books in all!) she spoke of 3 things, as graduation speakers normally do - of feeling, failing, and finding happiness. inspiring and positive - as a graduation speech should be.

i felt fortunate to have been able to sneak into the stadium (with legitimate reason, of course). there is no crowd as festive as a crowd of graduates, and they were all right there. there are more pictures up on smugmug of course, but this one was my favorite -

so i guess one can get into the stadium even if one is not a graduate :).

anyway, graduation was fun, photo-taking was fun, getting hooded in the school of ed ceremony was fun, and celebrating with people i love was fun. although i'll have more to say, and more to sigh about, when my degree is actually done (at the end of this summer), i must say that i have learned a lot more in these 9 months than in any other 9 months of my life, thus far...

and stanford, i'm convinced, is really something else!