Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Graduation AAR


Ceremony 

Five hundred twenty four 2023 Graduates of the Boiling Springs, S.C. High School. The curse of alphabetic order when your last name is White.

Crystal gets her diploma

Returning to her seat.

Beautiful young woman

Victory Lunch

Baby brother, graduate, and stepmother.

The Boyfriend

A Navy PO3, he finished 52 weeks of Nuclear Power School two days before her graduation. His next assignment is a welding school then Bangor, WA and assignment to a SSBN. He impressed me with his demeanor.

Granddaughter will attend Emery-Riddle in Florida to become an Aerospace Engineer.  An Honor Student since 1st grade, she has earned a six figure scholarship and a five figure grant. This will allow her to get her degree without incurring crippling debt or needing to go the ROTC route.

With her in Florida and him in Washington state, I see a lot of frequent flyer miles.

Pride

My principal motivation for driving 1,600 miles to be there was twofold. First, her Dad and my son died four years ago. I wanted to be there in his place, as much as possible. Second, to let her know in person how proud all of us in the family are of her and in awe of her accomplishments.

BZ

She was so pleased to hear commentators on this blog saying BZ. She offered a sincere thank you.

The trip

To be covered in a future blog.

8 comments:

Ami said...

So glad you could be there. I know your son would be so very proud of her.
Wonderful about the scholarships! I hear how 'this generation' doesn't work hard or know the value of anything... and it's proven wrong every single day. She's the future and it looks bright!

drjim said...

What a fine young American woman! Gives me hope for the future.....

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Ami, DrJim
She is an example of what our youth should be. Both she and her boyfriend are from blue collar families. Her boyfriend's father works on the BMW assembly line in Spartanburg. Both are as far away from "entitled" kids as you can get.

I'm so glad she isn't with some loser.

Old NFO said...

Outstanding! And yes, Bravo Zulu!

LSP said...

CONGRATS.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Old NFO, LSP
Thank you.

Wild, wild west said...

Very attractive lady, and smart too. The PO3 better not mess this up, he's unlikely to do better.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

WWW
I'm pleased he has something on the ball. Of course, I told him about our private family cemetery in Northwest Colorado and the backhoe nearby.

The surprising thing to me is my granddaughter is, while very confident, is still humble. He seems to be the same way.