Graduation Time!

One of my favorite photos from this past year is this one:

The girls are pictured with my sister, Melissa, at her graduation from veterinary school at Texas A&M University. It was such a proud day, and one that Melissa had worked toward for a VERY long time.

The great thing about the picture is that it makes me think of two things:

1)  How proud we all were of Melissa. And that includes Alex & Maryssa – they were in awe of everything they saw. Meli took us on a tour of the school – showing us where she learned and talking about all of her experiences. Alex & Maryssa’s eyes were huge as they looked at all of the animal skeletons, the biology room, met the ostrich and the horses that Meli had to care for. It was a whole new world.

2)  What is in store for Alex and Maryssa! We joked at the time that it was the girls’ first official college visit, but really, that is true. To them “college” has always been some undefined thing, usually associated with a mascot or a sports team. Somewhere all the grown-ups have been and a place they’ll go to some day. They’ve never gone and seen classrooms or labs before. So in a sense, they got to see what their future might look like one day. Maybe not at Texas A&M, but somewhere. And they heard about what Meli went through to earn that cap and gown, that medal she’s wearing, and the diploma with the fancy writing.

So I’m sharing this photo with all of you. Really it's just a cute pic of the girls with their aunt. But I love it for more than that.