CONGRATULATIONS 2011

Permit me a moment to brag.  Yesterday, my daughter, Roxanne, became a graduate of the University of Washington.  I am so full of pride that I am bursting at the seams.

 I thought that graduating from college was no big deal.  A lot of people do it. As it turns out, it is really quite difficult. Many kids attend college at a young age when they are full of questions, and rebellion with the urge to live life on the edge and experience new things and sensations.  That, in itself is dangerous. Then you throw in all the hard work, the studying, the expectations, the hang-overs and it can become a bitter uphill battle.  But then, maybe I'm talking about my college experience.
Most of the time, kids don't have a plan. They know they want an education, NEED an education but don't know what they want to do with their lives. Those are difficult choices to make at 19. Junior or senior year they can reach a burn-out where the burden and the decisions become too great, so they take "a year off" and alas, never go back. I'm not sure what you learn in college except maybe stamina. So to all of the graduates of 2011, who had the stamina to see it through, Congratulations! YOU DID IT!

Roxanne graduated with a BA in Dance.  She is a beautiful dancer and it gives me great joy to watch her.  She has always enjoyed dressing up in costumes and dancing around the house.  Wherever there was music, in a grocery store or department store or elevator, she would dance. I think she still does.  Beyond the obvious, however, Roxanne believes in the social, political importance of movement as a way of making a statement and causing change. (Rox, if I got that wrong, forgive me.) I certainly think it's true when I watch the varied forms of dance from modern to ballet, contemporary to hip hop. I may not like what I'm watching all of the time, but it certainly makes me think.

 Roxanne worried about being a dance major, but quoting the author Virginia Woolf who recommended that women honor and hone their creativity and not "become crazed with the torture" of silence, I urged her to follow her passion no matter what. The artist within us cannot be silenced, it just can't.  It creeps out in unexpected ways.  Bring it out into the light, give it wings, let it soar.

I know that Roxanne will go on to do great things.  Her talent is amazing and she is an intelligent, articulate young woman. I wish her every blessing that life has to offer.

(I love this picture because it shows how far off the ground she has jumped.)