Ben's Graduation

 This was a very full weekend. Friday was Brandons graduation ceremonies from Pepperdine law school and I talked about that in Fridays post. We came home on Friday afternoon and then Saturday afternoon we were off to Orange county for Ben's graduation. His graduation was early Sunday morning and since we didn't want to get up at four in the morning we went up the night before and stayed in a Motel. 


Friday night Ben, Brandon, myself and Ben's friend Patrick Carey had a guys night out. Grandpa was invited but since we went to a 9:30 movie he bowed out. Ben wanted to go see Thor and I was up for that but Brandon and Patrick had already seen it we decided to go see Battle Los Angles. It was definitely a guy movie and the kind of movie I rarely get to see unless I want to go alone. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The only problem is that I got home well after 12:30 and the alarm was set for 6:00. It made for a very long day.

The girls are very excited to see their Uncle Ben.

I finally dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 and shortly after 7:00 we were off to the Fullerton campus. I think Brandons graduating class of Law students was one or two hundred, Bens graduating class was about 10,000 and they said that over 7,000 of them were in attendance. Luckily the day was cool and cloudy so we were quite comfortable sitting there. We still had to use lots of sunscreen but at least we were comfortable. 

And Uncle Ben made their day by waving at them.

As with all graduation ceremonies it seemed to drag on forever but I have to admit that they moved things right along. They could have saved an hour if they'd just skipped trying to tell us how wonderful they were. I do have to confess that I thoroughly enjoyed there commencement speaker. They had my boss up there. They had Dr. Regina Dugan who is the head of DARPA. DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and a large part of Hi-Z's funding comes from DARPA. We have several DARPA funded projects. 


The DARPA woman spoke mostly about how we should not let fear stop us doing from what we want to do. I thought it was very good and probably quite appropriate for many of my own kids right now. She admitted that many of us will fail but we can always get right back up and try again but if we don't even try because we're afraid of failing then that is the worst kind of failure. She was good. 


All of the graduates met together in that first meeting and then they broke into their individual colleges. Ben was in the Business college and in particular the International Business department. I was surprised to see Ben walking in carrying the International Business sign. I shouldn't have been. Ben was always good at getting his hands on the trophy after a football game or volleyball game so I just knew that he'd talked the sign out of the hands of the person who was supposed to carry it. It was pretty cool to see him carrying the sign for his department. 


We were there early enough to get on the seventh row for the big meeting and then when they broke into groups we stayed int he same place because the business college is so huge and so we were able to get the first row. Even on the first row we were a long way from the stage. 


After Ben walked we went over to his new business building to take pictures. They have a brand new $30M dollar building donated by some guy named Steven Mihaylo. It is a pretty nice building and has been Ben's home for the last few years. Check out the picture of Ben sitting on the bench next to Mr. Mihaylo. 


One thing I thought was pretty cool is that the Fullerton Business program was rated as the number one Business Program in the United States by the US News and World Report. Pretty cool don't you think?


After taking a bunch of pictures we then took Ben and Sharley out for dinner. Andrew and Lisa Jones were there for Ben's graduation ceremonies and the pictures but they weren't able to come for dinner. After we ate we said our goodbyes and then Ben and Sharley took Brandon to LAX and we headed home. We brought Serene and her girls with us. Brandon will be back for the big communal party afterward Sarah's graduation. Unfortunately Brandon will be spending the night in the airport because all flights into Dallas have been cancelled due to tornado's. Those tornado's can sure play havoc with one's schedules. 

Tonight was Sarah's seminary scripture bowl. It is weird to think that after this week we will have no more kids in Seminary. Our lives are sure going to change a lot in these next few weeks. 


Next up is Sharley this coming Friday.

----------trivia----------

90% of a child's brain is already developed by the age of 5.

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Do you see that sign above Ben's head. According the US News and World Report, Fullerton's business program is the best in America. 

Here is Ben sitting with his buddy Steven. Steven Mihaylo donated $30M to help build this beautiful Business School. Steven is a graduate from Fullerton's business program. 

How do you like my shirt? That "F" actually stands for "Fullerton" but I like to think of this shirt as a personally monogrammed shirt. My lovely wife bought this for me. 

Andrew and Lisa Jones are the parent of Ben's best friend growing up. They came to support him at his graduation. 

Ben's mother has always been there for him.