Chancellor Lunch

In the afternoon was Lizy’s graduation ceremony. The president of the university was having a lunch at his residence for all the new graduates. We decided to go. We met up with Lizy’s PhD colleague, Mary and the two got some photos together. We lined up and got a photo with the chancellor and the president. We also got some lunch.

Campus

Next, we went to campus. We walked around, went to the book store, and got a photos with the alma matter statue. We went to get seats early at the ceremony, so we could sit somewhere that was easy for us to roll the stroller to and for Lizy to come sit with us to breastfeed Theodore.

Ceremony

The speeches at the graduation were a little boring. That part, if we’re being honest, doesn’t really matter though. When people were getting their degrees it got a little too loud with the clapping for Theodore, so I took him into the foyer to wait until it was Lizy’s turn. Since we had some time until Lizy, I took out the third cheese and tomato sandwich and ate it since I hadn’t eaten much at the Chancellor’s lunch. The cheese was still hard. The top slice of bread was a little soggy from the tomato, but the sandwich still hit the spot.

We went back in to see Lizy graduate. It was really emotional for me seeing Lizy being hooded. I knew how hard she had worked to finish the thing. Andy was at the front snapping photos. After she walked off the stage she ran up to the back of the auditorium and we embraced. As a token of her appreciation for my support her during her PHD she gave me her graduation stole. At the University of Illinois it’s tradition to give your stole to show your appreciation for someone that helped you during your journey. I felt extremely honored for Lizy to give her stole and hope to cherish it for the rest of my life.

We took some more photos on the steps outside the ceremony. I’ll post a few of them here.

Dinner

We had a celebration dinner at The Grove. Brett, the professor that had hooded Lizy at the ceremony and given Theodore the onesie at Harriet’s party came to dinner with us together with her husband. His name was Philip. He was from Trinidad and was a physicist at the university.

I had to hold Theo the entire dinner because he fell asleep in my arms. Philip who was sitting next to me, cut up my steak so I could eat while holding Theodore. He said it was a privilege to cut up my steak and such a gesture of goodwill and hospitality was part of his Caribbean upbringing.

During the dinner Philip talked about his love of Kurosawa films. He attributed this love to the fondness his son had developed for Japanese culture as a whole. They had visited Japan together twice.

The dinner was a lovely capstone on the day and I was glad that Theodore was able to sleep through it. He needed the sleep after such a long day.