MCC Honors Convocation

What a glorious, resounding joy.

We arrived an hour early, as the rule followers we are. Yessa was off to a separate room to wait for the ceremony to begin, and the four of us headed to the theater to wait.

The program laid out how the event would unfold, and when it began, the tears flowed.

"Pomp and Circumstance" holds a lot of power, and the pageantry of the faculty and Trustees processing in with the solemnity and excitement of the event, it was a throat-tightening moment.

Yessa would tell us later that it wasn't until she was on the stage, receiving her accolades, that she realized all the faculty were in attendance as well.

We made sure to sit on the side where the honorees would be seated, and Yessa had no trouble spotting us as they filed in.

The program was inspiring and insightful and held so much joy. Several of the students were immigrants, coming to the United States when they were young. Many were first-generation college students. All of them stood and listened as stories of their dedication, kindness, work ethic, creativity, and bright futures were read and applauded by the gathered friends and family. These were all young people with vision and purpose and the drive to do great things.

The university hasn't posted the full video yet, but they shared lovely photos on Insta:

I am so proud of these children of ours; each of them have so many gifts and talents and strengths and such courage. This was the first time though, that Buds and I have gotten to hear someone else praise one of them in such a joyful, enthusiastic, focused way. We both were overcome with such joy and pride and love, it leaked out of our eyeballs.

Here's the video Buds took of Yessa receiving her certificate. There was a little miscommunication with Dean Rambish where she thinks we lived around the world in places we visited on trips, and you can see Yessa's eyes get a little big when she hears these new facts about her life. Overall though, a glorious biography of our Yessa.

After the 11 had received their certificates and listened to their laudits, there was a final section where the 4 students who maintained a 4.0 GPA received their medallions. Thanks to the previous introductions, we knew that 2 of these 4 had been homeschooled.

After the ceremony was over, we followed out into the atrium of the theater for a reception.

Heck of a day.