Return to Campus

We spent the weekend in Chestertown at Washington College. We traveled to the eastern shore to bear witness to and celebrate CG’s commencement. It is truly astonishing how quickly these four years have blown by.

For the people of Chestertown, it’s just something that has been happening every spring since 1783.

Today’s commencement speaker was sports columnist Frank Deford. Frank proffered that the graduates should allow themselves to be surprised in life. He lamented that in a world where we know who’s calling before we pick up a phone, instantly know if someone had their eyes closed when a picture a is taken, and because of facebook, blind dates aren’t really blind anymore, we’re continuing to pave over opportunities for surprise.

It may have fallen on deaf ears, at least amongst the guests of honor. Frank also said that a University of Chicago study found that 97% of college graduates can’t recall who spoke at their commencement, let alone what they said.

I remember mine but mostly because, as seniors, we were very disappointed. The class before us had Bob Hope. We had Archbishop James Aloysius Hickey. I have no idea what his speech was about.