Another year... and saying good-bye

Shelby Salvatore, Dave Owen, Hadson Ngirikasau--friends, library workers, president, jokers

It happened again... we had our graduation ceremony and 26 of the students I have gotten to know are now moving onward.  I definitely have mixed feelings about the entire thing.  I get to know these students out of the classroom most of the time; in the library we have a mixture of serious study time and playful interaction.  I see these men and women on campus and they become incorporated into daily life; normalcy.  I love that!

But... things change.  That is not on my list of favorite activities.
 

Rommel Carino and parents--friend, brother, pain-in-the-neck

Jaynee Sam--friend, babysitter, musical genius

That is the difficult part for me.  While I am conscious of the fact that new students will come and I will be blessed by new friends and new interactions, I savor these last moments.  I know that many of our faculty and staff have been at PIU long enough to see more than a decade worth of students come and go, graduate and leave but I am not used to it, yet.  And I hope I never do become accustomed to it.  No matter how wistful I become, I want to always want to hold on to the moment and savor the brothers and sisters for as long as I can before new ones come to the family.  There is no more precious time than right now, no matter how wonderful the new things that come.