On Friday May 18th CDSP held its 118th Commencement and Lauren was among the thirteen or so people to receive a degree on a beautiful sunny day. The event was held at 10:30 in the morning and included a Eucharist as part of the program. The Commencement is part two of a two day event. The night before was Baccalaureate which was held in the chapel and was basically the last church service for the graduates. The service is planned by the graduates and I had the privilege to be the the lector for the Old Testament lesson. It was a normal service that followed the traditional order of service with an additional blessing over the graduates as the only addition. The service was then followed by a catered dinner with an awards presentation and a slide show featuring pictures and selected quotations from the graduates. It was a great evening and pretty good food. While Baccalaureate is a fun time it is graduation that is the occasion that everyone looks forward to.
Lauren had to be at the steps of the chapel at 8:00AM for the traditional class picture and then I met up with her shortly after. We proceeded to wait around St. Margret's courtyard of Parsons Hall (the dorm for CDSP) for the next hour and a half. Anticipation and anxiety slowly built up as we patiently waited for the service to begin. Shortly after 9:00AM the rehearsal began and we had the Archbishop of Hong Kong as the presider of the service and the Bishop of Ohio as the preacher, all decked out in their robes and carrying the symbols of their offices. Then promptly at 10:30AM the program began and it was pretty cool. As you will see from the setup from the pictures below that there is a stage with the altar at one end of the courtyard with the graduates sitting on one side of the stage and the faculty and board of trustees on the opposite side and finally the rest of the people (friends and family members) in front of the stage. In all I would say there was about three to four hundred people all in this courtyard. One cool feature of this setup is that a canopy was erected to cover the whole courtyard to shade everyone from the sun. The service took about two and half hours of which the Bishop of Ohio easily preached thirty minutes of that time. When it was all said in done every graduate was hooded, handed their diploma, and ready to take on the next adventure in their lives. We retreated to Denniston Hall (CDSP's refectory that is no longer in use, but serves as a place for gatherings and studying) for a small reception. It was cool to be a part of the events of those two days as it was a preview of what will be my experience in two short years. I was imagining myself with the graduates and my family members in the crowd. To be honest it was pretty cool to daydream for a bit, but I still have two more years of hard work ahead of me.
Lauren and I hung out with her family at the reception but by 1:00PM I had begun to pack the rental car that we had rented for the road trip to Phoenix for her ordination. Graduation was Friday morning and Lauren had to be at her home parish in Chandler by 5:00PM on Saturday for the ordination rehearsal. That meant we had a little over 24 hours to drive roughly 11-12 hours from Berkeley to Phoenix. Our plan was to leave Berkeley by 3:00PM and drive as far as we could, stop for the night and continue the next morning to arrive in Phoenix before noon. I was also motivated to get to Chandler before noon because my favorite soccer team, FC Bayern Munich, was playing the Champions League Final, which is the biggest game in soccer. Some people even think it is bigger then the World Cup Final.
After the reception we packed up the car and went up the hill to Nichols Apartments (more CDSP student housing) because there is a party each year after the graduation service for the graduates. By the time Lauren and I arrived there were easily thirty people there. We hung out there for about an hour and as 3:00PM arrived I began to say my goodbyes, some to people who I would see in the fall and others who I may not see again. For Lauren it was pretty rough as she had to say her goodbyes to her good friends, some of whom she has known for the three years she was at CDSP. As we pulled away a chapter in her life had come to a close and there were tears shed for that loss, but a new one had just begun with new hopes and new dreams for a future yet to come.
We hit the road and drove south on the I5 through the central valley, filled with mile after mile of orchards and cattle farms, and made our way around LA. It was about 10:30 and we were just west of LA when we decided that we should stop in Palm Springs. We pulled up to the Motel 6 in Palm Springs and we crashed for the night. We both knew that we had to wake up early if we wanted to make it to Phoenix in time for the kickoff of the soccer game at noon, so we went to bed excited for the events of the next two days.
The stage in Saint Margret's courtyard, with the red Celtic cross (one of the symbols of CDSP) and my dorm room four floors directly up
The Bishop of Ohio preaching during the service
A picture of the graduates with Lauren tucked away in the crowd
The graduates standing getting ready to proceed to the stage to receive their hood
The President and Dean of CDSP on stage with the Chair of the Board of Trustees as they prepare to confer degrees and hoods
My friend and classmate Jay was the head usher and is in the suit with the red sash, Lauren is the third person to his left
Lauren next in line, I wonder just how nervous she was, don't trip...
Lauren receiving her hood and diploma
Lauren acknowledging her classmates after gracefully stepping down from the stage without tripping...hope I don't trip when its my turn
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