This post is my entry for MyBlog-solaner Lens-Artist Challenge! Thanks for hosting. Have a great rest of this Sunday and take care everyone!
Categories: Photography Play
singlikewildflowers
Welcome to my blog! My name is Esther and I'm so happy you are here. I'm an avid nature photographer and a daydreaming thinker. My posts revolve around photos of nature's beauty, homeschooling adventures with my 2 kids, sporadic reflections on my child's heart condition, Bible reading reflections, gardening feats, and other mish mash things. Hopefully you'll leave encouraged, pensive, or smiling at the simple things of life. Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll find some interesting posts to read!
sing like wildflowers 
Congratulations to the new graduate! Exciting times, for sure!
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Thank you I’m a little nervous and excited. Thank you this is Elliot by the way! š
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Hi, Elliot! I’ll never forget your name, because my mother’s family name was Elliot. I used to visit my grandfather Elliot when I was in grade school. He would take me to see the railroad trains, and go with me while I roller-skated in a park across from his house!
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Thank you Linda!! The name Elliot has a elegant and smart ring to it. Interesting how it can be a first or last name. It seems the same for my daughter’s name, Ellis.
I let Elliot know your comment and he smiled big. When I asked him if he wanted to write back, he disappeared. He gets shy about writing back and is a reluctant writer.
It sounds like you spent some fun times with your grandfather!
Hope you are having a great weekend and enjoying the last bit of July that’s left. š
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I understand Elliot’s shyness. From my perspective, it’s just as well he doesn’t want to dive head first into all things bloggish and social media-ish! The smile’s good enough.
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Thank you!! So sweet of you.
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Delightful pst!
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Thank u!
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A little bit of everything here Yvette. Vacation Bible School and graduation – congrats to Elliot. I like the fireworks – beautiful!
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Thank you Linda! It was a photo assortment of some of our activities. Elliot says, “thank you!”
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He had special honors with your graduation cap. We only got to keep the tassels – this is from your Masters degree ceremony so you got to keep the mortarboard?
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Yes, I let him borrow my cap. lol. It was from my doctoral ceremony in 2009. I had a choice to buy the hood and gown with it, but the total was almost $900. It would’ve made sense to invest that much if were going the academia route, but ehhhh, I’ll save the money. What would I do with it? Although sometimes I do wish I got it for keepsake as part of that horrendous academic journey. But really, who got the space and money for it jut for keepsakes?!! As you can tell, I feel conflicted about it.
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I thought it might be from then. I didn’t know you could actually buy the cap and hood/gown. Wow – $900.00 (and back in 2009 yet) is a ton of money. You’re right – not knowing how often you would don this garb again, but I can see how you’d be conflicted. We had to rent our gowns for my B.A. at Wayne State University, same as for my AA at Henry Ford College and high school.
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I rented mine too but the cap was for us to keep after returning the gown. Isn’t it expensive to just have as a keepsake?!
You might have mentioned it earlier but I may have forgotten. What is your B.A. in?
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That was horrible expensive for your doctoral garb. I don’t remember what it was to rent the cap/gown for my Associates Degree – went to that ceremony, but for my B.A., my grandmother was here and it was in June, a sickening hot day and it was to be in Cobo Hall downtown – I knew it would be hard on my grandmother who had heart problems and my mom with her mobility issues, so I said “let’s take some pictures and go out to eat somewhere nice” and that’s what we did.
My B.A. is in print journalism. I have never worked in that field – Watergate scandal and Woodward and Bernstein made a lot of students go into investigative journalism, thus flooding the market. They put me in a P.R. internship as there were no internships at any major or local newspapers.
I started working at an ad agency Creative Department right out of college, hoping to work my way up the ladder. My mentor left with a slew of others after we lost a major account. He could not take me with him.
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It seems people choose or end up pursuing different career routes from what they studied in college. College is a good foundation to build up our interests and skills…and then you’re off to find your path.
I don’t know much about it but print journalism sounds interesting; wonder how things would’ve changed if your mentor took you with him to his next venture.
Graduation days seem to involve hot sweltering days…remember the UC Davis one this summer where people had to get emergency assistance from the heat?! It’s tough on the family and attendees to celebrate when you’re cooked in the sun.
For the doctoral graduation ceremony, it was terribly stressful for me and Chris to navigate my parents, 2 relatives, and Chris’ mom in nyc. They’re not used to walking that much, city heat, getting 2 cabs to shuttle everyone around…and making sure everyone is in good spirits. Man, that was stressful and expensive.
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Yes, I often wonder where my path would have gone had Jerry stayed. I wanted to be a veterinarian, but did not have good grades in math and sciences like chemistry, physical science – I don’t know if I would have had the heart and soul to do that job and see animals in pain, so it’s probably best. Print journalism is so different now – so many big newspapers have their newsy items on social media, some are putting up paywalls to read the article and less and less people buy a hard copy of a newspaper to read anymore.
It was horribly hot on graduation day for me and I am sure my mom and grandmother were relived when I suggested we beg off. I took some pics of my grandmother in my college gown and cap holding a paper I rolled to look like a scroll, then we went to a restaurant that had an Elvis impersonator (Elvis Wade) – he was very good and did a great show – it was the year after Elvis had died.
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Oh I could see you as a veterinarian! You would’ve been a very good one and done much good. But yes, getting there means taking all those science classes. I wonder how some people do it. I would’ve loved to have studied medicine but I had the same problem. It would’ve been too risky to try it out and maybe fail.
Part of life, huh? Now I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than be my kiddos’ mom and Chris’ wife. That’s my deep feeling but if only I can keep up the contentment that would help a lot. lol
Elvis dinner show sounds wonderful and entertaining. You girls know how to celebrate. š
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I know my parents were disappointed I never did anything with my degree, especially since they were willing to pay for whatever career I chose, no matter how many years. I sometimes wonder if I would have tried harder after the 18-month stint at the ad agency had I put myself through school and had student loans, etc. It is hard to go back and analyze my mindset at that time. I liked Elvis Presley, but did not go ga-ga for him, but had some of his records. However, Elvis Wade was a great impersonator – the inflections, the voice … we had a table near the stage and he came down and handed me his sweaty neckerchief and my mom kicked me under the table and whispered “I think you are supposed to swoon Linda.” I was a little embarrassed, probably the youngest female in the crowd. A few years ago, I was looking at the cap-and-gown pictures and thought about Elvis Wade and decided to Google and see if he was still doing shows. He wasn’t that much older than me. So he is still performing and has aged better than Elvis did. š I didn’t take any photos that night – maybe they forbid it or perhaps I used up the film in my pocket camera earlier with the cap and gown pics. So anyway, he had a website and I wrote to him and said I had been to his show at the Golden Nugget (I think that was it … I knew at the time) in Southgate, Michigan in June 1978, in lieu of my college graduation night. I bought an 8-track tape he was selling there of his show tunes. He had stopped at our table after the performance and chatted with us. So, he said he remembered (maybe just saying that). His name is Wade Cummings.
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