Yesterday was graduation, or commencement, at Mont Alto. At our campus almost all the faculty make it a point of attending the ceremony. Usually, a few weeks before the ceremony I resolve that this year I won’t be going, that I’ve had enough. Yet I almost always do end up deciding to go. Why?
In the forestry program we work very closely with the same group of students for the full two years. We really get to see many sides, good and less good, of the students. I suppose they could say the same thing of the faculty. I have good days and other days when I wouldn’t mind not being involved with the students again.
I go to graduation to see the story through to the end. College is a process. Education is a long journey. None of us know how it will turn out in the end. We don’t know how or when we will meet again. Let’s go out on a positive, happy note instead of thinking about that last less than perfect assignment. And the same is true for the sutdents, too.