My oldest niece graduated from high school today- Charter School of Wilmington's Class of 2013! It was pretty cool to watch- the ceremony was at the DuPont Theater in downtown Wilmington. The class salutorian was actually pretty funny, the speakers weren't boring, and they had a cool touch with a powerpoint show that showed a large, blown-up picture of every senior as they graduated. It was a pretty stark contrast to my own graduation in 2005- a dark rainy night, really boring speeches, and disorganization to the point where people were showing up and sneaking onstage while the ceremony was in progress.

I gotta say, I got pretty teary-eyed. My oldest niece was the family baby for almost 12 years until the second niece came along in '06 - I can still prety clearly remember her crawling around on the floor of our house when she was 9 months old. It's weird to think she'll be going off on her own to Pittsburgh University, where she'll be studying molecular biology. It doesn't seem possible that 18 years went by like *that*. It was wonderful to watch her grow up from a baby into a young woman who marches to the beat of her own drum, with some great accomplishments under her belt.

Later that night, I wound up going out to Newark, DE to watch Alumni Weekend in progress. Alumni Weekend, called Del-A-Bration (get it? get it?) is a weekend where the University of Delaware puts on various celebrations for their alumni. The centerpoint of this is Mug Night, where they put two tents on the North Green and South Green, and the alumni get trashed to the tune of cover bands. The other hallmark is that alumni are allowed to have "overnights" in the dorms. I didn't take part in all of that, because I didn't feel like putting down money for that. Maybe next year, since it's my 5th year out. Well, not my 5th year, because I graduated in 2010, but 2009 was my real class year. And...I guess maybe I don't really feel accomplished enough yet to really"deserve" to these alumni events.

I did hit up popular UD bar Klondike Kate's, though. I don't usually go there because the crowd is always 90 percent college- I tend to hit up Deer Park Tavern or Homegrown, which are more mixed and have live music. But one of my friends was there (he graduated in '11), so I wound up going. It was cool to see old faces that I remembered seeing when I went to UD. To top it off, our D.J. played "Party in the U.S.A.", which instantly brought me back to the fall of my senior year, when the song was huge.

After the bars let out, it was pretty funny to walk around Main Street and see all the 25 to 30-year olds acting like they were still at UD- people carrying around their drunk friends on their shoulder like they were 19 again. I did wind up running into a few people I knew from college, which was cool.

My friend and I walked down to the fountain on South Green, where a bunch of people were splashing around. It's a UD tradition for seniors to splash around in this foundtain on graduation night. I sat around and laughed my ass off at this spectacle until the cops came. (Okay, I'll admit I stayed around to watch because some of the guys were pretty cute with nice bodies that looked good in wet boxers.) I could've gone in, but I don't know- I jumped into the fountain when I was actually graduating from UD- I didn't really feel the urge to do this, plus given that I'm no longer a student there, public safety would have no incentive not to throw the book at me so the risk didn't seem worth it. As I watched those 25-year olds re-enacting their rite-of-passage(one of them said they were the class of 2010), I did think a lot about what Adam has said about The Endless Summer- when it's gone, you can't really get it back. Although if it makes them happy to pretend they're 22 again for a weekend...well, more power to them.

My friend Mike and I then walked around aimlessly around campus and just talked. It was nice. It made me remember what it was like on a late night at UD, when I couldn't sleep and I'd just walk around the campus aimlessly. It was cool to point out places that hold particular memories- although even though I'm only 3 years out, A LOT has changed. Again, the Endless Summer not being so Endless...it really isn't 2009 anymore, and I got reminded of that while walking around the campus.

I don't consider University of Delaware the best years of my life- I really think my IUP graduate school years brought out the best in me. But it really was a time in which I went through a lot of change and growth, learned some incredibly tough lessons about myself and about other people, and made some incredible memories.