pieces and ponderings

My family took many photos this last weekend.  It was my firstborn son’s graduation from college and we documented the event with lots of pictures.

When you arrive a couple of hours early so you can get a seat, you have a lot of time on your hands.  You read the thick graduation program.  You look for your adult child’s name under the college from which they are earning a degree.  You take pictures of empty stages and large screens that announce that you are at the commencement exercises for the 2011 spring and summer graduates.  You wait.

We took lots of photos during the ceremony…of our son standing and sitting and walking and smiling.  We took pictures of some of the people that he began his college adventure with four years ago…classmates from his high school.  They all finished well.

And we took photos after the ceremony…with his siblings…with his parents.  Photos of him standing…walking…smiling…sweating (it was a hot day!).  We even took a photo of a plaque that bore his name, which hangs on the wall of the college where he left his mark.  We took photos at receptions…photos during the reception…photos leaving the reception.

We are proud parents…we took lots of photos.

But there is one image that I can only carry in my mind’s memory.  I wish I had had my camera.  I wish I had gotten a digital image that I could transfer into a print image and put in a frame and place in my home.  But my camera wasn’t hanging around my neck when my mind’s eye captured this image.

Our three oldest sons had gone ahead of my husband and I and our youngest to breakfast the morning of the graduation.  I knew children 3 and 4 had gone down before us…but for some reason I thought child number 1 was still behind us.  I walked into the hotel’s breakfast area.  It was crowded…with the hotel hosting two different family reunions.  I looked across the large crowded room and a young man caught my eye.  He was handsome and well-dressed with a bright white dress shirt and a crimson tie that went well with his gray slacks.  He was looking back at me…he had a twinkle in his eye.  He smiled and I realized that I knew this young man…this grown-up man.  He belonged to me.  He was the reason that we were there…celebrating his hard work.

I think that a little gasp escaped from my lips when I realized who the man was that met my gaze.  I was so happy to see him (he had arrived later than we had the night before and I had not seen him in two whole days).  Four years of memories of his college years began passing through my mind.  The memories would continue to flow throughout the rest of the day…and I realized that there we were…making new memories.

We finished making our breakfast plates and pouring coffee into cups and sat down side by side.  That will be one of my favorite memories from this past graduation weekend…the image that will linger in my mind…but not in a frame in my home.