Juris Doctor

The older I get and the more children I have, the less I can remember things, especially dates. So now I sequence my life based on events and today was one such occasion that will forever be a mile marker on my life path. My beautiful husband graduated law school.

Three years of legal pads and law books and late night clackety-clacking on his laptop into the late hours of the night have surprisingly gone by in the blink of an eye. Today, with our families in tow, we proudly watched him walk the stage Magna Cum Laude and become Stephen Shaw, JD. Even Jack seemed to feel the importance of his entrance to Pomp and Circumstance which will always give me goosebumps for the instant recognition of the work needed to get to march to that beautiful song.

I just couldn't be more proud of my husband, not only for his accomplishments (which I could list for pages only to get edited off this blog once he saw them posted) but also for the way he's managed to take care of us, his little nuclear family, while he himself was under the strain of pencils, books, essays, and exams.

Perhaps the very best part of this weekend was watching Stephen's father beam with the pride only a father can know whilst Jackson sat atop his shoulders with the carefree glee only a son riding high on his father's strength can feel. It was a generational portrait of the way men are supposed to be raised. Excellence and respect by example. And our son could not be any luckier than to have these men to be his guide.

I also couldn't help but think, as I watched our young little family mingling in the park reception, that it will be way too soon when I am sitting in a living room not yet laid out, with a photo album in my lap, thinking of how much has happened since today and how we had no idea how much fuller and richer our lives were going to get.

Today is one of my milestone days that I will pivot my memory around and I can't thank you enough for it, Matilda. Congratulations and I love you.


[Editor's note: Amazingly, I have refrained from removing anything from this post; more pictures located at http://picasaweb.google.com/stephen.forest.shaw/Graduation02# /Matilda]