For such a big landmark event is life, it is amazing how it seems to be truncated down to these particular 12 photos (okay, probably 13 if we include the official graduation picture we purchased).
The event is called commencement for a reason — it is the beginning of something — though we usually think of it as the end of something — the college experience and education we have spent 4 years of our lives on.
As I look at these pictures I am amazed at what I do not remember from that time, and what memories the pictures invoke. I don’t remember anything about the speaker or what he said at the ceremony. I don’t remember how comfortable or uncomfortable it was in the graduation robes.
I do notice in the pictures afterwards that some graduates are unzipped, while I still have my robe zipped up, and tie firmly still in place.
The pictures of the Houghton College Quad are definitely vintage in the after-ceremony milling shots. The one shot shows Wollsey hall, that is no longer there, and every shot probably has something that could easily date it.
The other main impression I have is the people that are in the shots. My aunt and uncle came on down, and my friend Stephen Westbrook from High School was there. Time drifts us apart so quickly. What amazes me today is how many of these people still are a significant part of my life — some through the influence they still exert by how they shaped me, and others through the amazing way modern technology has kept us connected, or brought us back together.
At The Rainbow 
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