Nine, Ten, Eleven . . .

My younger daughter will have no trouble forgetting the date of her college graduation as it reads, "Nine, Ten, Eleven!" (9/10/2011) But what a shock to realize how fast the time has gone by. How soon each year is completed and dumps us into the future. Hey, it happens every day!

I think the fact that my daughter graduated the day before the tenth anniversary of the infamous 9/11 date showed up the passing of the years even more clearly. We were chatting with a group of young people and talking about 'where were you' on 9/11. Most of them were between the ages of 7 and 10 years old back then. Ten years changes a lot.

My daughter attended a relatively new college. Her graduating class was the third one to come from this institution of learning. Amazing, something that was thought impossible is showing itself to be possible - a college based on Catholic principles with Catholic teaching woven into the everyday fabric of it's educational system. As the young man who gave the senior address said, and I'm working from memory here, "Believe in us so what we are attempting will happen." The wording is not precise but the thought is there. I think that too many times, people will applaud an effort but don't totally support it because it seems impossible in this day and age. However, if you find enough people to believe in the concept, things happen.

We went to the graduation with seven, close friends and filled up a whole church pew to support my daughter's accomplishment. There was a beautiful Mass celebrated with five priests. Unlike a lot of graduations, it did not drag out and all the talks were well-thought out and fit the moment. The whole event took two and a half hours yet it didn't seem long.

This is my second child to graduate from college. My third one graduates in December. Only my 'baby' is left and we have hopes there will be room for him to take classes at the community college in the Spring. According to the counseling office, there probably won't be but we have prayer on our side. We just need for him to get one class and his foot in the door.