June 4 Carpe Diem

This month, I am taking a walk down the complex and intersection ridden Memory Lane of old family photos thanks to a push from my blogging friend, Kim Johnson, Common Threads. 

We woke up in a college dorm at Cornell University where they let guests stay before graduation. I guess there were not enough local hotels available, but I really am not sure. We showered in a giant shower room along with other female relatives and friends of graduates. I tried to quickly shower my very pregnant self, keeping my talkative and curious two-year old tucked into a corner shower area. 

Yet, she overlooked the wide load right in front of her to comment on the many other body shapes and sizes scattered around the room. I am pretty sure I scooped her slithery body up as fast as I could when she asked me why people were so fat? Fortunately, she slept through the long, hot speeches and graduation rituals where my baby brother and his soon to be wife earned life-long Big Red status. My dad was thrilled to finally have another engineer in the family. I suspect  my mom was happy her baby, Jeremiah III, would be back at home, at least for a short while. 

I am glad we celebrated that day, now, as I realize that schools, work, moves, and family pressures would impact and separate us all in the days to come. When I reflect on the photo of my nuclear family that day, I feel the loss of people I loved, through death or by choice. Only my sister and my daughter are left. I am pretty sure that someone said something about Carpe Diem either that day or at some graduation speech somewhere! It is a wise message to graduates and their families.