Graduation

My Father's Day gift came yesterday afternoon:

Last kid out of college. This one: Chemistry major - he'll be working as an intern in King Estates Winery's lab. At the departmental graduation ceremony where they say a few words about each graduate as they walk across the stage and get their degree, the announcer said he aced the final in quantum chemistry and told the other graduates to blame him for their low grades, because he set the curve. There was some doubt about whether he would even be able to get into college, and my goal was simply for him to finish in any major, so the announcement was a very pleasant surprise - more so since he didn't have all the math prereqs and taught himself a lot of what he needed to complete the course. He was always more interested in athletics than academics, an all-star pitcher on the number one team in the state in high school, he has intramural championships in several sports here at the UO (and just missed a few others), another in city league, etc., but lately he's turned his focus to academics. After the ceremony, one of his professors tried to convince him to continue in physical chemistry, and that was also a pleasant surprise. I try not to do much personal stuff here, but as you can probably tell, I'm very proud of him.