KG, Thay & The College Graduation That Changed My Life

Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace, and Simple Transformative Life Experiences

My son and I at our favorite indie coffee shop, about 6–7 years ago. A patron, who was a photographer, noticed the sunlight streaming in on us and captured this lovely moment. I am grateful. I am at peace. I am present.

The college graduation that changed my life wasn’t even my own. In fact, both my undergrad and grad school graduation ceremonies were kind of a bust. For undergrad, I wasn’t able to walk with my class. I needed five additional credits to officially graduate. I would finish those five credits through Field Studies conducted in conjunction with a summer job at the Boston Children’s Museum. I was offered the opportunity to walk the following May. Who wants to go back to college 12 months later and walk across a stage? Not me.

For graduate school (from Harvard, no less), my parents called the night before they were set to fly into Boston. My mom forced my father to tell me the truth they’d been hiding from me during graduate school. After 36 years of marriage, my parents were getting a divorce. My father had an affair, and my mother would not share a hotel room with him while they were in Boston for the festivities. That graduation was coated in just a little bit of tension and discomfort. It was bittersweet. It was complicated. It was exhausting. I guess you could say that graduation did change my life, but not in the typical way graduations are supposed to.