Today my sister graduated from a very small, very Jesuit, very private, liberal arts college.  She graduated without debt.  This is more than most of her cohorts can say, but they too originated from quite comfortable existences.  One does not simply attend a private school.  Private schools require family love, and family support, and family money.

Today my sister graduated from college and my brother, parents, grandmother, and I drove one of the four cars parked in our driveway to an outdoor ceremony, where we sat in the pouring rain for the hour before the outdoor ceremony began.  An hour during which we complained profusely about how uncomfortable and unhappy we were because we were waiting in the rain--wearing too many layers--for my sister to receive her college degree.  The ceremony (for which my sister bought a new dress and new shoes) ended and was followed by a $250 celebratory dinner at an Italian restaurant.

After dinner we moved my sister out of her on-campus apartment along with all of the other families moving their graduates out of their on-campus apartments.  Belongings were packed and belongings were discarded. A number of perfectly good rugs, comforters, electronics, etc., were thrown to a dumpster.  Entire refrigerators of unconsumed food were thrown away as the food would not survive trips home.  All of these discarded foods and belongings were carried to the nearby dumpster where one, then two, then three, families were joyfully shuffling through the graduates' discarded goods.  As if it was Christmas.  They saw value in all of the carelessly dismissed goods.

Perspective.

Keep on thinking,
Josie