Graduation Day

(Written a week ago on the morning of my daughter’s college graduation day)

Today is “Eat a Donut Day.” (Because my daughter works at a donut shop and donuts are free! And since it will be our first stop this morning, as we are in town for her college graduation, we can also have her make us fancy donut shop coffee and matcha drinks.) She will show off her barista skills, which is especially impressive, since when she left for college she didn’t like coffee at all. Now she both drinks it and knows how to make it. Of course she is not working this morning, since it is graduation day and all. But we can stop by and say hello to her coworkers who are friends and enjoy a donuty breakfast and watch her run the espresso machine. 

Today is “Spend More Money Than You Normally Would on Sunday Lunch” day (because it will be a major celebratory luncheon, the kind that doesn’t happen very often.)

Today is a day when we woke up in an Airbnb that felt like a posh hotel room. It is the opposite of the last Airbnb that we stayed at, the one in Lompoc where I woke up around midnight to the sonic boom of a SpaceX rocket launch. That one shared a bathroom with other guests and had additional rooms rented out, including one to folks who arrived in the wee hours of the morning (possibly because they were out watching the failed rocket launch), guests who snored loudly enough to be heard in our room down the hall.

The backyard of our Airbnb. We didn’t have a chance to use the putting green…

This Airbnb has its own bathroom, a separate private entrance, is in a neighborhood up in the hills that I could never afford to live in, and is run by a host who provided snacks, bottled water, a kettle for tea along with green tea bags, and shampoo (in case you forgot yours).

I was grateful to find this Airbnb because it was relatively affordable (Sure, it is a 40-minute drive from UCLA, but it cost a fraction of what lodging near the university was running).

Today, my daughter graduates from UCLA with a degree in Environmental Science, along with two minors: one in Conservation Biology, the other in Community Engagement and Social Change.

Her roommate of two years graduated yesterday. (UCLA has their department graduations on different days) and is moving out today. My daughter will be staying in her apartment a few more days, but we are hoping to get most of her belongings into our car after the ceremony to start the process of moving her home.

Not that she is actually moving home. Our home for now is going to be the place where she keeps her stuff while she’s off doing other things. First up? An internship this summer where she will study butterflies and do research with scientists  from the University of Washington. 

After that?

Who knows? There are other internships she is applying for, and then ultimately she’d like to go to graduate school to get a PhD.

A PhD?

Who knew that you could go straight into a PhD program without getting a pesky Master’s Degree first? I didn’t.

It’s a donut day. A sweet day. A day of celebration. But also a day of endings, of transition, of change. Of moving! Of packing and loading the car and loading up memories. It’s a day when I want to be present for every moment. To be grateful that we made the drive down from home yesterday, that the car ran smoothly, that there was virtually no traffic, that I remembered where the cheapest gas was on the I-5. Thankful for Google Maps that got us to UCLA and then to Tacos Tu Madre, a little restaurant where we had breakfast burritos for dinner last night, burritos that were stuffed with scrambled eggs and truffle guacamole. (This thing? This truffle guacamole? It is one of the finest things I have ever tasted. It’s tempting to try to replicate it. But that might spoil it. Truffle guacamole will forever be in my memory as something that we ate in Los Angeles on the night before graduation).

There have been celebrations in the past where I have been so worried about getting the picture right, the video right, that I missed what was going on right in front of me. So. No worries today about getting the video, the picture, the forever image of her walking across the stage to receive her degree. Don’t need to do that. I will watch. I will watch and keep it safe in my heart.