Where does time go? Especially the older you get. It used to be that days and weeks were long, months and years were short. They’re all short now.
Three years ago, Diana and I were visiting law schools. Envisioning her graduating with an official law degree was forever in the distance. She’d be my graduate student forever.
Then, poof, three years vanish and suddenly she and her fiance are packing a J.D. in the back of the Jetta that she’s had since high school and driving to Delaware.
Diana is officially a resident of Wilmington, Delaware. She’s studying for the bar exam and embarking on her first federal clerkship at the end of the summer.
What is happening?
I’ve seen a video of her new apartment. It comes complete with a washer/dryer and dishwasher (three things she did without while studying law). Unless you’ve lived the past three years schlepping dirty clothes to a laundry mat and hand-washing all of your dishes, you may not appreciate those three machines as much as I know Diana does.
Pads aside, graduation weekend was a joy to behold.
Granted, I left D’s gift beside my bed in Atlanta and didn’t realize it until 6:30 a.m. the following morning. Jeff asked as we were departing down our driveway if I had packed it. I immediately reached for the suitcase latch to make sure and even mumbled that maybe I should go back inside to double check. Jeff assured me I had packed it and I confidently agreed.
But I hadn’t.
Whatever.
As soon as Champagne-Urbana opened for business on graduation day, Jeff and I shopped ‘til we never wanted to shop anywhere on earth again. All in pursuit of a respectable, substitute gift. A last-minute appropriate gift for a law grad with many awards to her credit and a ranking in the top 5%. Not a great way to start things off but we had plenty of time and were happy with what we found.
On the up side, Diana’s future in-laws traveled a long way to see her receive a Juris Doctor. We are grateful to them for making the trip. Their son (our future son-in-law) supported Diana throughout law school. AND! He helped pack her apartment and transport her and a bunch of stuff to Wilmington.
Thank you to all!
The strange part of the weekend was at the end. Jeff and I were in Champaign-Urbana for a few hours after everyone in our party left. Our flight was late afternoon so rather than sit around the not-so-exciting Bloomington, Illinois airport we hung out…guess where…in Champaign-Urbana.
We went back to the shopping mall for a third time and schlepped around other places. Then, we went back to the law school for a final visit and took this selfie.
If all this reads as boring, I agree. (Diana wasn’t even in the state of Illinois!) But, TBH, we had fun doing it. We’re hopelessly proud of our Georgia Tech engineering grad and our top tier UIUC law grad.
(Plug insert: our other, under-the-radar, daughter is just as smart and accomplished as Diana in case you were wondering. Surely, you must have been wondering?)
Now, it’s wedding time! We’re recalibrating to plan Diana’s wedding.
Phew.
Prayers accepted and appreciated.
Thank you for reading!
Love, Shelley
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