Thursday, May 27, 2010

Class Day, Harvard Law School

The day is searing hot. I may be the only one in Boston delighted with the steam bath, but truly, I don’t mind.

We begin the day with a breakfast across the river, in Boston. It’s pleasant and breezy in the shade and so we sit outside. I tell my clan that from now until September, I’ll eat every breakfast outside (when possible). There is no better way to greet the world, no better way to begin a summer day.

My mother, being a Berkeleyan for more than a decade now (where she tells us it never gets hot or cold), is wilting a little and so we put her in a cab for the hotel. The four of us set out for a last sentimental stroll through Boston.


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In the afternoon, all of us gather at my daughter’s apartment (another last time? I had so many happy visits here!), drink a toast to her future, their future really – both my girls, because, of course, it is their cohort that will set the terms and give us a different world.



And now the graduation celebrations begin.

Class Day. We sit under the tall trees outside the Langdell Hall of Harvard law School. It’s a time of speeches...


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Samantha Power from the National Security Council, class speaker


...of many proud parents taking many pictures...


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one of many


...of glimpses of our sons and daughters, the graduates...


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my little one

...of sweet treats...


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...of iced tea to cool off...


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...and bouquets of flowers...


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...of parents and their children.


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On Thursday, she gets her diploma. On this day she is still a student. One last day of having a kid in school. One last day.