Commencement 2010

And then they were gone.

For all the commotion that the class of 2010 made rehearsing for graduation and celebrating afterward, they were gone in an hour. All that energy and excitement--gone. We looked at each other and realized that it was for the last time.

For the graduates who return only every five years, for their reunions, we watch them grow up as if by time-lapse magic. Many have found life partners by their fifth reunions, and little children gambol at the tenth reunion. Weight increases and hairlines decrease by the fifteenth.

They come to Susquehanna as rough drafts of whom they will become, and they leave with still more revisions to be made. We applaud them when they come because we believe in their promise; we applaud them when they leave because we're proud of their accomplishments.

Commencement rehearsal, May 15, 2010 (click to enlarge)

Commencement rehearsal, May 15, 2010 (click to enlarge)

President Jay Lemons asks the students who completed the Mount Mahanoy hike to stand and be recognized. They signed a banner as a memento. May 15, 2010 (click to enlarge)