Crossing a Threshold

Two weeks from now, we will be sitting in the Bryce Jordan Center honoring a group of Pennsylvania State University graduates including our daughter Emily. Over the last few years, we have held close to the present moment while also understanding how quickly this day would come. And here we are.

It has been a journey, Boo, and what a beautiful one. You have held your heart high learning how to find your way at a huge university during a pandemic. You have embraced your passions of rowing and connecting with a team both at Penn State and Victoria University of Wellington. You’ve worked with your teammates to raise funds and awareness for THON through the years. You have made lasting friendships and memories that your heart will carry through your lifetime.

In the classroom, you’ve excelled at your academics by making the dean’s list every semester and participating in research studies with your professors on campus. Just this semester you’ve healed through a broken hip and are on your way back into your running shoes. What a weekend we are coming out of even now … celebrating together 30 years of our Penn State Crew family. It is an honor to now hold with you the space of two generations of Penn State grads, and also the space of two generations of PSU Crew alum.

In addition to filling your time on campus and in town, you have remained an integral part of our immediate family by sharing time between home here in Centre County and home in Western NY. A massive piece of sharing your time with family has been your dedication to embracing Grandpa over these past six years while he’s been under our care. Your love, presence, and countless moments spent with G’Pa through these years have held him here. You lit up his world from Day 1, Peanut, and his dream was to witness you cross this threshold of receiving your diploma in two weeks. He almost made it. And, even though he won’t be sitting with us in that auditorium in two weeks, I know full well both he and G’Ma, Aunt Becky, Grandpa Bob, and an army of your radiant ancestors will be holding your hand as you cross that stage to receive your degree.

Here is to your fierce and gentle heart. Here is to your dreams. Here is to your future as you help light the way forward. We absolutely love you. We are so proud of you. We are—ancestors included—cheering you on every step of the way

WE ARE!!!