Be the First to Strive

Back in South Bend, Indiana, life was unfolding before our eyes.  Carena was graduating and moving on to a new and exciting phase of her life.   Our festivities started with the commencement mass which due to the huge crowd, was held in the basketball arena rather than the beautiful  Basilica on campus.  Following that, we hosted a party at Carena’s home for the past year, a small yellow house a few blocks from the campus.   Her roommates, friends, and their families attended and it was odd that although we had only come out to visit Carena 3 times during her years at ND, we knew a lot of the parents – having met them on move in day that first year in the dorms, tail gate parties at the football games, and ski trips in Tahoe.  How unlike the high school graduation, though, when those parents would continue to be our friends while these parents we were unlikely to see ever again.

The next morning we got to town at 7 AM to stake out our seats for the 9 AM ceremony.  It was hot and muggy sitting in the stadium as we faced the rising sun in the early morning hours, our assorted collection of baseball caps providing the only relief from the burning sun shining in our eyes.  Some in the stands didn’t want to spend the $20 on a Notre Dame Fighting Irish cap and instead had crafted hats out of cardboard food carriers leftover from their breakfasts of chili dogs and fries sold in true Midwestern fashion from the concession stand at 8 AM in the morning.  The graduates paraded in with their respective colleges – Letters & Science, Engineering, Architecture, and finally Business (“last in, first to have jobs” was the chant that arose from the stands as they entered).  We prayed and listened to the valedictorian, who as first in his class, having earned numerous awards and achieved notable accomplishments, would be going on to the London School of Economics to pursue a degree in Philosophy, followed by enrollment in some prestigious medical school.  The theme of his speech?  “Strive not to be first, but to be the first to strive.”  Hmmm.  Seems like he sort of forgot about that over the past four years.  Now that he was first in everything, I guess it was easy to be reflective on the need to put that aside and instead be the first to strive towards some world-saving humanistic goal.   One notable line from his speech – we share a common ending and a thousand new beginnings.  So very true.

Next up was Robert Gates,  Secretary of Defense,  who offered congratulations and implored the graduates to look for ways to serve their country and to keep in mind that our freedom comes at a cost,  which should not be forgotten during the current budget allocation decisions.  More faculty speeches and awards followed, and finally the closing remarks from a sister whose work involves housing the homeless despite the lack of attention and budget offered by greedy wallstreet types who undoubtedly were the truthful cause of homelessness in this country.   Degrees were conferred;  the graduates, who by now, after an hour of staging and two hours of ceremony in the hot sun, were nearly crippled from heatstroke, cheerfully rose from their chairs with the usual fanfare, beach balls, and flying hats, and paraded through the hallowed gates of the football stadium and out to the rest of their lives. 

We attended a second, smaller ceremony with the business school where we were reminded that Mendoza College of Business was ranked the #1 undergraduate college in the country for two years in a row, and then watched as the kids processed up to have their pictures taken, and receive their diploma and a special gift from the school (a glass tombstone celebrating the #1 ranking).  Then it was off to take pictures on the steps of the golden dome building – the last tradition of the weekend.  It is said that ND students may not enter the building using those steps until they graduate, otherwise they will jinx themselves and never matriculate.  So now, they were finally entitled, and to commemorate that fact, Carena waited in line for an hour and a half for our turn to take solo pictures on the steps with friends and family.

All this pomp and circumstance made me reflect back on my personal list of things to do:  Graduate from high school. Check.  Go to College.  Check.  Get married.  Check.  Have children.  Check.  Get a job.  Check. Turn 50 and watch your own kids do it all over again.  Check.  A common ending but a thousand new beginnings.   I wonder where Carena’s new beginnings will take her?