Honestly, I thought that at my age, graduation might not seem like a big deal…but I was wrong. My third college graduation (after undergrad at Santa Clara University and an MBA at the University of Chicago–40 years ago!) felt huge.
My first University of Pennsylvania graduation ceremony on May 19, 2024, was for our college, the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS). UPenn has college graduations, where everyone walks across the stage and has their name called; my Masters of Applied Positive Psychology program (MAPP) is part of LPS. I found it incredibly emotional as I walked into the auditorium for our event and I saw my wife and four former Monta Vista athletes waiting for us (Bridget Gottlieb and Kiersten Chuc, MV 2014, Paru Meyyappan MV 2017, and Triya Roy MV 2020). I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to have all of them at the ceremony for me. Crossing the stage seemed to happen so fast, including being hugged by a giant pink pillow (Martin Seligman, the founder of our program, was wearing fantastic academic regalia that he recieved along with an honorary doctorate from the University of Madrid). Before I knew it, that part of the ceremony was over, and we were off to the MAPP reception, where for most of the evening I was introducing my grad school friends to my wife and my Monta Vista family.
Two days later, on Monday May 20, the entire university graduated as a group. This ceremony was in Franklin Field, where the Penn Relays are held. In this ceremony, entire groups would be recognized at once…graduates in our program, graduates in computer science, graduates in nursing, graduates in Italian, etc. Great speaker, too. And if you watch carefully, you see me in the crowd once or twice.
Afterwards, some friends and I went to lunch with our families and took some of the traditional Penn grad photos–Locust Walk, the Love statue, the UPenn sign.
Penn does a great job with these ceremonies. At the end, I did feel like I was being recognized for all the work I did over the last year, and the sacrifices I made by leaving Monta Vista for this last track season.
The next day, I got on the train to Baltimore and the Johns Hopkins University graduation on May 23; Triya Roy and I attended each other’s graduations, in a very fun back-to-back coach-athlete graduation week. That has to be very unique! I felt a little like a third parent the next few days with graduation dinners, Hop events, and the graduation itself–including Stevie Wonder getting an honorary doctorate and giving us all a song. It was nice to see so many athletes I coached this season at Hop graduate, too. Penn and Hop both put on fantastic commencement ceremonies…these are great schools that truly invest in their communities.
I’m on the plane now to Dallas, and then home for the Monta Vista class of 2024 commencement ceremony. I think I need to go to more graduations. This was great!
A Message to All Graduating Athletes in My Family!
Please don’t take your graduation ceremony for granted! Savor it. Take some time to look around and think, “This is all for us.” You are graduating, and that is a big deal. You went to a challenging school. What you were asked to do was not always easy. You came a long way–just like I did. Talk to your friends and tell them, “We earned this with four years of consistent work.” It’s cool. Enjoy it, think about it, savor the day!
See you all soon! And good luck to Clara Fan and Lelani Laruelle at State this weekend (Clara, don’t hurt your neck with all those CCS medals!).
