When Dave and I graduated from college we did it together. It was a December twenty-five years ago (yikes!) and by the time the actual graduation ceremony rolled around that spring, we had already moved to Washington, D.C.

There was no pomp and circumstance for that graduation of ours (we were pretty happy about though, even in the midst of having no clue of what to do next! so funny to look back on those days!)

Because we never had the opportunity to wear all that cool garb, or to have a formal ceremony, it was even MORE beautiful to me the other night to see Dave all dressed up in his get-up:

Man alive, I am proud of that guy (even though he wouldn’t let me do a graduation photoshoot of him with all that stuff on:)

I love that he is always trying to learn new things.

Always striving to be better.

He is the best example to me of the analogy I like to tell my kids in any kind of development: it’s not an escalator.

Whether we are working on things spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially or mentally, we don’t just step on an escalator and let it do the work.

We have to do the work to develop the muscles to climb those stairs ourselves.

They don’t move, we do.

And sometimes that muscle development takes a lot of work.

And sweat and tears! (“the man in the arena“)

But in the end it’s always worth it.

On Monday he officially graduated from his Masters of Global Management course.

I love the traditions of graduations.

The traditions.

The “academic regalia.”

The formal ceremonies to mark some great achievement.

Part of the tradition at Thunderbird is to do a processional march.

They had drummers and were carrying these light sticks and I loved watching all those people walk by, each with their own story spreading out in their wake that got them there, and their own future stories beckoning them on the horizon.

Then it was time for the ceremony.

I have to brag that Dave was in the top 10% of his graduating class, and also part of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

So great to watch that guy cross the stage with that big smile, right after our friend Denny who went through this whole hoopla with him:

Way back in those college days where we didn’t get to walk for graduation, these two were right by our side:

Nichole was my roommate and Denny was our neighbor…been through a lot of life with these two friends we love so much!

So it was pretty awesome Dave and Denny got to do this whole program together, having each other’s backs through the toughest stuff (man, they worked HARD!)

We had dinner with these guys (and a few who weren’t in this picture below) a while back…so many incredible people.

Proud daughter:

Proud parents.

Wish all the kids could have been there, but glad at least we got one pretty sparkly representative:)

Way to go, guys!

The journey of a global management masters degree:

Going Back to School

Ongoing Learning

Doing Hard Things (in the arena)

Books Dave shared with me through this program that I loved:

Atomic Habits

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

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2 Comments

  1. Congrats to Dave! It makes me want to go back and take some classes again myself.

    Side note: Could you pretty pretty please share where your black pencil skirt is from? I have been looking for one that is long enough for me!

    Thanks!

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