Commencement 2005

So, that's all she wrote on academic '04-'05. Today our brand spankin new graduates got their sheepskins from the head of our school and marched boldly off into their future (or perhaps dashed off to find work before their graduation loan deferments run out).

We of course wish them all the best of luck.

Commencement is probably the very definition of bittersweet for college professors. On the one hand you are excited for your students who have successfully completed the program. On the other you are sitting there knowing that these people in whom you have made such a large investment are probably not going to see you again anytime soon, and certainly without the frequency to which you have become accustomed. It really is a glass half full kind of day.

The mechanics of students moving on with their lives is I think one of the hardest things about teaching. Over the years I have become good friends with many of my students, and really I do miss them every day. I wonder if this gets easier the longer you teach or if teachers that are in it for the long haul develop some other kind of defense mechanism.

There are other things that are bittersweet about graduation day. Although as an instructor you have been a principle part of the education, your role is really only supporting on this day. This is a family occasion, and a last time for students to see each other. In many ways the faculty and staff have had their time, and on this day are really only there to observe the students living in the other part of their lives, the part that has been in the background during class. Today the teachers move to the background.

Little things too, which parents are introduced, photos you are asked to be in, if your are asked to lunch. All a last gesture from one student or another to cap their time. In some ways it is a shame that such a big day should have to happen at the end of the program, as there are certain to be students that because of some project or some grade are not in the best mindset regarding their instructors just at the finish line. As if the entire experience is somehow dwarfed in the last two or three weeks.

Still the year ends, the summer beckons, and then there will be another academic year. And we do it all again. So I guess it is an overall happy time, even with the tinge it gets from being "the end" for some. Certainly that theme that must play itself out in thousands of commencement addresses is true: for while it is and end to this cycle, it is only but a beginning to another, and another.

Good luck to all this year's graduates. Our best wishes for you in whatever your pursuits.