Graduation!

Micah graduated! Yup, thanks to a plethora of college credits during high school, Micah spent just two years at CU Boulder and has earned his BA in Philosophy. I'll start with my favorite pictures of the graduate and then go back and recap...

So, technically, the university-wide ceremony was on Thursday. Nathan's parents drove into town on Wednesday for the graduation and we all got up extra early (John, Nancy, Nathan, Noah and I) to drive down to Boulder to battle for parking and walk to the stadium to attend the 8:30am ceremony. (Asher had two finals of his own that morning at UNC so, obviously, did not join us.)

Given that Micah wasn't answering his phone, we stopped at his house first with a suspicion that he was not awake. And, he was, indeed, asleep. Given that he's not a morning person to begin with and had been keeping long hours leading up to and throughout finals (which, for him, ended at 9pm Wednesday) and given that there was no realistic way that he was going to get to where the students were supposed to line up in time, we decided to let him go back to sleep and the rest of us turned around and drove home to Fort Collins. (We got back before 9am and Noah actually decided to go to work rather than take the day off.) Yeah. So. We didn't go to the university ceremony. ;P

Micah joined us in Fort Collins that afternoon after he'd woken back up and such. Asher joined us shortly after that, having finished his semester. That night, we all met up with my brother, sister in law and niece (who's currently a student here in Fort Collins at CSU) for a celebratory dinner at The Still Whiskey Steaks in Old Town. (We'd decided ahead of time not to try to do lunch or dinner down in Boulder, as getting a reservation was crazy. Fortunately, CSU's graduation and move out is next weekend, not this one.) We also walked over to Walrus for ice cream after that and had a nice time visiting.

Friday, then, we all got ourselves to Boulder again. We picked up Micah (who had driven back to Boulder Thursday night) and found parking on campus. We walked around a bit so grandparents could see some of the campus and found a field near the library to take some pictures...

...and then we proceeded to the building where Micah's departmental recognition ceremony was taking place. Since Philosophy is one of the smaller departments, it was a lovely, personal event (and was where graduates actually walked the stage and received their degrees and all, unlike the university-wide ceremony that had too many graduates to do that). The faculty was hilarious (reassuring parents about the value of their child's philosophy degree, lol) and they allowed each graduate to say a few words as they were receiving their degrees. It was truly a great ceremony and was followed by a little reception outside.

After that, we went back inside briefly to get a few more pictures without the sun shining so brightly on us (and because I thought the stairs looked cool).

And then (after sitting in parking lot mayhem for awhile) we grabbed a very late lunch/early dinner in Longmont (again unwilling to brave the crowds in Boulder). Micah then headed back to Boulder since he had some plans for the next day. The rest of us went home and reset briefly and then turned around and drove a couple vehicles to Greeley to move Asher out of his dorm for the school year. We packed everything up and got everything loaded just in time for his check out slot. Then we drove home, unloaded most everything into the front room and called it good.

Whew.

And now Micah is planning to spend the summer networking and polishing papers and looking for what's next. He'll stay in Boulder until his lease is up at the end of July. We have no doubts that he'll tenaciously figure out his next chapter and look forward to seeing where that takes him. So proud of this kid...his confidence, his enthusiasm, his motivation. He challenges us and entertains us and is just an all around great guy. :)