Game Over, Man

Last week, there was an event that got a little lost in the shuffle of politics and viruses and the politics of viruses: My son finished college. Finished. Complete. Ended. Concluded. Done.
I remember his last day of preschool. He walked the bridge in the playground, setting up a date with elementary school. I was in the audience to watch him be promoted from the fifth grade. This time it was the auditorium, not the playground where another page was turned. It was shorter stay in middle school, but when it came time to drive downtown to the Scottish Rite Temple, I sat in the balcony to watch my son be moved on up to high school. Soon enough it was time to head back downtown, this time to the Paramount Theater, where commencement commenced and he had suddenly become eligible to attend the college of his choice.
That was where he has been for the past four years and change. Because of the vagaries of the quarter system and the way that credits stack up in undergraduate education, he finds himself being eligible for graduation a few months ahead of the ceremony that will seal the deal. There will most likely be a cap and gown involved at some point. A band might play. There could be confetti and ribbons and balloons.
But it was the contented sigh that I heard on the other end of the phone line that felt like the celebration. "So, you're all done?" I asked.
That's where the sigh came in. He went on to describe the loose ends he still needed to tie up on a couple of projects, and then the conversation moved on abruptly to what was for dinner and the evening ahead. There were no fireworks. Just a pending appointment with a microwave.
But he did it. Pre-K through BA in just under twenty-one years. If you add in the time he was hanging around our house getting ready to attend school, then he's just about twenty-three years into this voyage, and though I am certain that he will be a lifelong learner he will be happy to take a break from institutionalized education.
His mother and I can stop fretting about report cards and tuition. We can start looking forward to the job search and beginning of the next chapter.
Sigh.