The End of an Era

For the last two years, I've had two siblings attending colleges within 25 minutes of my house.

Jesse and I have loved having Jon and Kate both this close to us, and have cherished the ability to drop by and bring them needed items,  see their theatrical performances and gallery openings, hang out at local coffee shops, and answer random phone calls asking, "Can I spend the night with you guys tonight?"

For the last two weeks, it's been slowly ending.

I've been dreading this.

(Before you start wondering----"Wow, two college grads in the same year?  Are they twins?" ----The answer is no.  Jon and Kate are two years apart, but while Jon took a year off of school to do mission work in the Czech Republic and travel around Europe, Kate nearly killed herself taking summer courses and doing everything she could to be finished with school as quickly as possible.  That's how I have a 22 year old brother and a 20 year old sister both graduating from college this year)

 

 

Kate's graduation was the first.

She graduated with honors from the Fine Arts program and has received impressive reviews of her work.

 

We are so, so proud of her!

 

 

Jon was part of a special honors institute, so he had two graduations this weekend.  Jesse and I attended the smaller honors graduation on Friday, and watched him graduate with 1000 classmates online yesterday.

Jon's beautiful girlfriend, Megan, is behind him in this pic.  We love her as if she were our sister already!

Part of the ceremony involved a "vigorous tapping" of God's Holy Word so that they would keep it in their hearts and minds forever.

 

Signing their names in the book

 

Proudly wearing the blue stole and Honors Institute ring each graduate is given

 

 

(No, this wasn't part of the ceremony!)

 

So proud of both of them!

 

And just to prove that we did see the big ceremony too...

God bless instant video streaming!