Graduation Mother's Day

I don't know if Mom has access to a computer right now, so maybe she'll see this when she gets home. She told me that she wanted to see pictures of my graduation, so this is the first motivation behind this post.
Mom pointed out that she was the first in her family to earn a college degree, and I was the first in her family to earn a Ph.D. After my Master's degree, she gave me this figurine of a girl in a pretty pink dress, holding a diploma, which was given to her by her mom. I really treasure this figurine- I love how feminine the girl is.



And, the graduation.



My committee chair, Miguel Chuaqui, and I.



Nolen pretending my robe is a tent.





Me being my own kind of feminist. (That was for Andrew :P)






(I realize this next part is a little self involved and a little obnoxious. My excuse is that I'm trying to repaint the picture of the graduation for mom).
During the ceremony, they read the Bachelor's degrees first. This was about an hour of fast name reading, hundreds of people that earned their bachelor's. The master's degrees were done in less than 5 minutes, and there were only 3 doctorates. My degree was the last name read in the two hour ceremony, which made me feel very special, and during all those names before me, I was thinking about how I got to that place, about how the actions and decisions of any one day can set in motion an entire future. Of course I realize it was the decisions of many days lead me to this place, and also that not all of these decisions were my own. The decisions I made were: my decision to pursue a Ph.D. (and to not quit the 30 times that I wanted to), my decision to not worry about making a living and to major in music, and before that, my decision to go to college. These were all made in the last 12 years, but, I'm 29 years old, and the decisions for the first 17 years were not all made by me. Some that stand out as significant are the decision to put your 6 year old in piano lessons or your 12 year old in voice lessons, which were made by mom. I also did not decide to be the first in my family to graduate college, so she could raise her own children in an enlightened way and teach them to value education. Certainly there are decisions of others, too (Dad, teachers, siblings, friends), that helped me along the way, but, on this Mother's Day after graduation, I want to honor mom for her decisions on my behalf that helped put my life's destination in motion. Thanks mom, and Happy Mother's Day!