Dr. George, Dr. Beth (aka Dr. Mommy)

George's graduation events were as impressive as I expected, having attended a few other events at the Univ. of Chicago. Friday morning at 11 a.m. the hooding ceremony was held on the Midway Plaisance. This was a divisional ceremony for the Pritzker School of Medicine and was more personal than the huge Convocation. The programs pictured each graduate, listed their specialty, and where they would do their residency. George received his green and maroon hood. He also received his Richard W. Reilly Award for outstanding aptitude in the field of Gastroenterology. His specialty, however, will be internal medicine/pediatrics.
After the hooding the class photo was taken and then we lined up for a really good buffet luncheon. We had two kinds of green salad, southwestern potato salad, a pasta dish, and lots of kinds of cookies. :-) John and I were present, Beth and the boys, Beth's mother, Elizabeth and Brent, and Judy.
On Saturday morning at 9:30 the processional began for the outdoor unified Convocation. What pageantry! From all the quadrangles marched the undergraduates, the graduate students, the faculty....each line led by bagpipes and flags. 22,000 chairs had been set up and an outdoor stage erected. Multiple giant screens offered a better view for those who could barely glimpse the stage. Therefore we got a good "view" of the speaker, Paul Sereno, known to anyone who reads The National Geographic as the "dinosaur hunter", and who is on the faculty at the U of Chicago.
A cloudburst just as the Business School PhD's were announced (but after the Med school)caused us to take shelter in the bookstore, where Judy purchased a nice frame for George's diploma.
After the ceremony we met George in one of the med school buildings for a sack lunch. These "sacks" were so nice that I saved most of them. They had the U of C logo and I plan to take my lunch to school in them next year, thereby hoping to impress the new superintendent so that he believes I deserve the sub raise. :-)
John, Judy, and I, along with John J and JT, attended the Convocation and felt really lucky that we accidently chose chairs near the pathway down which the Medical School graduates would later walk.
Saturday evening was a graduation party at their new apartment. Beth graduated in late May from Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine so this was quite a celebration for them. The photo shows George putting on a bow tie that Judy got him.
Yes, of course I'm proud of all their hard work and sacrifices over many years. It's been a long journey for them. So, I certainly also feel that any sense of pride belongs to them alone. Only they know how much they've given towards what they have achieved.