Yesterday afternoon, my mom went to Seattle Pacific University's graduation ceremony to watch a family friend's daughter graduate. It's so crazy to see people graduate from college who you remember so distinctly as a kid. She and I used to play all the time in our backyard with Breyer horses, or setting up horse jumping courses by setting broomsticks across two chairs around the backyard and seeing who could complete the course fastest. We also were the "directors" of an ongoing production of "Cats," whose cast boasted us and all our siblings. There are multiple home videos of this, and yes, they're pretty awesome/incriminating. Seriously though. We knew every lyric and all the choreography. Our parents were forced to sit through countless showings. It's funny to think that I'm probably closer to my own kids pulling those kinds of antics than my own childhood.
belt/thrifted :: bag/fossil :: photos w/vest by my mom
Usually commencement speeches are boring and longwinded, but I quite enjoyed the speech at SPU's graduation. It touched on much of the things I've been thinking about for my life in recent weeks, including simplifying and really figuring out my identity. It was also great to be able to talk to my mom. I miss being able to talk with her since we live so far away from one another. There's something so grounding and refreshing about talking with someone who knows you so completely. There's no need to explain the background story, or try to get her to understand what I mean because she knows how I communicate, my character, and my faults. I think that's what's so hard about making new friends. You want to find someone you can have that connection with, but really it's something that can only be built over time. Starting the process of finding someone who "gets" you and is trustworthy and compatible with you is just so hard sometimes.
