You think of college graduation and you envision throngs of college students bedecked in colorful and imaginatively decorated caps and gowns. You picture proud moms in their finest summer dresses. And dads breaking out the cargo shorts and beat up flip flops. You conjure up a beautiful, sun-drenched ceremony that will live in the memory bank forever.
Well, that's other people's lives.
Not mine.
The night before the big ceremony in Boulder, Colorado, it started snowing. It never stopped snowing. As we pulled the full size Chevy Tahoe off route 36 and headed up Lefthand Canyon Road -- the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park -- the road grew slicker and slicker.
A mile in, and the road was white. Another mile in and we were crunching 2 inches of freshly fallen snow under the big tires.
By the time we woke up next morning, 6 inches had blanketed our little airbnb cabin in the woods.
Just as the coffee had brewed, a Ford 150 pickup truck coming down the mountain had slipped and slid off the road and impaled itself on the rocks banking the creek right in front of our log cabin. Another inch, and he would have been in the drink.
Great, I thought, I've got to summon my dormant snow navigation skills, hewed to perfection in Syracuse, NY, and get my entire family down the hill in one piece. That you are reading this is testament to my climactic driving acumen.
The ceremony began at 8:30.
Naturally my wife wanted to guarantee we'd be in our seats by 7:30 AM.
Did I mention that it was still snowing? In fact it was coming down even harder.
The pomp and circumstance began promptly at 8:30. And so did the ebullient snowball fighting. In fact, I don't think a word of the hackneyed speech(es) were heard. Instead we were treated to a volley of snowballs that could rival any movie featuring two competing armies of skilled archers.
The spectacle was so noteworthy it made the Washington Post, Good Morning America and the Today Show.
https://nypost.com/video/university-of-colorado-students-celebrate-commencement-with-epic-snowball-fight/
The video hardly does it justice.
Even more noteworthy was the laughter in crowd. Like the snow, it was non-stop and contagious.
Flash forward two days. As I write this, the sun is out. It's a bluebird day in Boulder. And the thermometer is topping out at 70 degrees It's exactly what we were all hoping for on day of the graduation. But in retrospect, I'm glad we got what we got.
A monster snowstorm.
And an even more vivid memory.
Happy college graduation to my little girl.
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