College
Graduation Announcements
I guess I've always been sentimental, but when I saw,
printed out before my eyes, my son's college graduation
announcements, it brought a tear to my eye. Somehow,
in all the hussle and hubbub, the drama and also the good times
of his final college years, it had never occurred to me that my
son was going out into the real world to make a life for
himself until the moment when I saw those college graduation
announcements, sitting there stacked neatly on the desk and
waiting to be mailed.
I had designed the college graduation
announcements myself, trying to put a touch of the personal
into them. I had looked at all the websites which promised to
make something spiffy and brightly lettered, something
professional looking to give your college graduation
announcements a touch of pizazz which they wouldn't have when
made by hand, but I had ultimately rejected them and turned to
my neglected calligraphy. I hand-lettered the first college
graduation announcement, putting hours into getting the look of
it, the texture of the strokes, the quality perfect, and then
sent it off to the printer to be made into a mass run of
printouts.
Of course, seeing the college graduation
announcements, our friends and families probably won't
understand everything that went into them – how all my hopes
and dreams for my sons future are recorded on that paper. A
less careful eye might even think that the college graduation
announcements were not hand made or even hand lettered, but
designed on a machine. You see, I have more or less mastered
calligraphy in the last few years, to such an exacting degree
that people often mistake my work for that of a machine. Will
they understand that I made the college graduation
announcements myself?
I suppose it doesn't matter, because ultimately it wasn't
for them, but for me. Of course, the purpose of the college
graduation announcements was to inform others, but the time
spent making them, and the work that went into it, was an
occasion for me to reflect on my son and how much he means to
me. The time spent raising him, the fun we've had together, and
also the occasional fight all ran through my head, and I found
myself so happy to see that my son has grown up to be a fine
young man. And that is the greatest gift a parent can
receive.
|