Birthday Graduation
I initially wrote this piece in response to a prompt but somehow never got around to submitting it. I decided today was as good a day as any to share it.
I turned thirty the day I graduated from medical school. In those days I was considered a āmature student.ā I had also just moved into a townhouse from the apartment my small family had lived in during my student days. We hadnāt even unpacked.
June third, nineteen eighty-eight is indelibly etched in my mind. The day shone bright and sunny. My classmates and I, in our black robes, walked the stage to receive our well-earned diplomas, watched by proud family and friends. My husband, mother, and eldest sister attended. My nineteen-month-old son waited at home with our long-time babysitter.
The photos of myself and my classmates out on the lawns afterward show no sign that a scant few weeks later we would all be thrust into internships and residencies that would prove even more exhausting and challenging than the four preceding years. That day we all rode high on the success of our labors.
Afterward, we held a party in our rundown townhouse, still full of boxes. I called it my thirtieth birthday/graduation/housewarming party. As many of my family and friends as lived nearby celebrated with us.
Derek Mackesy, the doctor who had supervised me during an elective at a sports medicine clinic also attended with his wife Helen. They were a wonderful couple with whom I have, sadly, long-ago lost touch. Derek brought a gift with himāāāa pediatric stethoscope with purple (my favorite color) tubing. Today my four-year-old grandson plays doctor with it.
Being a poor student, the gathering was BYOB and a potluck. There was enough food to feed a small army, and enough alcohol to each have a few drinks. Of laughter and hugs, there was no shortage.
In that moment, crammed into our townhouse, the people who mattered most to me in the world helped me celebrate an achievement I could not have imagined ten years before. Most of them, in one way or another, had helped me reach it.
I feel so fortunate to have been granted the grace of this gathering. Some of my classmatesā families put on much fancier celebrations, but none of them could have held more love or laughter.
In remembering this special time, my heart goes out to the graduates of 2020. There will be a gap in remembrances, an unfulfilled rite of passage. I wonder how it will echo throughout their lives. Will it be a footnote, or something more? In a world changed by COVID-19, I wish you all so much more than 2020 has afforded you.
Image by Chantellen fromĀ Pixabay
With thanks to Dennett for the prompt. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, looking back to gatherings of friends and family is bittersweet. This yearās birthday was a much quieter affair. The members of my immediate household Ā met my eldest son at a park and had a distance visit. We did manage a cake, using gloves, masks (for retrieving our pieces), and disposable plates and forks.
I wish you all safety and good health. Make the best memories you can of this time. Itās too easy to focus on what we have lost, missing out on what pleasure we can find or create for ourselves. Congratulations to all of 2020ās graduates. Your accomplishment matters. Own it. Celebrate in whatever way you can safely do so. Build a memory worth remembering.