My eldest daughter Alyssa graduated Cum Laude from law school yesterday and I promised myself that I would not cry. Let's review how I did, shall we?
When she entered the auditorium as part of the procession, I cried. When she reached her seat and turned around to smile at us, I cried. And when they called her name and she walked across that stage to accept her diploma, I REALLY cried. Not just the rim around the eyes tears either. These were the kind you can feel rolling down your cheek. They feel like they are carving themselves into your face forever. Smokey Robinson "Tracks Of My Tears" tears. The kind that if you don't catch them soon enough, they drip onto the front of your shirt. Shortly after these dried, and the ceremony ended, she marched out with the class and she saw me and smiled and waved her diploma at me like a flag, and I started crying again.
I did not do well, in other words.