A graduation to mark the beginning and one to mark the end

It was graduation week here. 

Luke started us off with a pre-school graduation. They interviewed the kids and read the responses out loud. Luke's favorite part of the pre-school day was clean up time. He has always said it was his favorite part and it never changed, I could never figure out why it was his favorite time of day, he never really elaborated on what happened during clean up time that was so awesome. He certainly helps out here, but I don't think it is his favorite part of being at home. Then he said he wanted to be a painter when he grew up. He had told us that he couldn't decide between artist and rock star, so we told him he could be both.

Then Pete graduated. I always figured when he graduated I would do this big long blog entry about it and everything, but I am not sure what to say or how to say it. A long time ago (the undergraduates who graduated from college this week were high school freshman when we started this journey) we had 1 kid who was a baby, Pete was working, we just bought a house( I believe we lived in it for less than a year), and we seemed set to start our life as a family in Louisville. Pete decided he wanted to go back to school to get his PhD in math. I agreed to this though I admit I initially said no. One day I felt a whisper in my ear that said I should let Pete follow through with this decision so I agreed. We ended up at Purdue. I admit I hated it at first. I am the type of person that says: prove it to me. It annoys Pete a great deal I think. This town sucks and if you want me to think otherwise- prove it to me. Over time the town did prove it to me. I love our little town. I love many of the people I have met in this little town. I am so sad we have to leave even though many of our friends have already moved on.  So here at this point I want to share a few old pictures.

This is our first winter at Purdue. Way back in 2007/2008. Pete holding Jack and standing in front of the Math Building

As luck or fate would have it I met one of my best friends almost right away.  Here are Jack and Elsie our first winter here.

Our first spring here - Jack at the lion fountain.

 

The path didn't go the way we expected. Perhaps, this is why I am not sure how to write this. I felt very strongly that God sent us here, he told me to agree, because Pete was supposed to not only get a PhD, which is a HUGE achievement, but he was going to have his dream come true and become a professor. This is why he wanted to start down the path of getting a PhD, this is why we moved, this is why we have not been super close to family as our family has grown larger, and yet this did not happen. Maybe we should have seen it a few years ago, but I think we thought the trials were just to test his desire. His first adviser stunk as an adviser and was even going to move to Japan (?) without telling him, his second adviser moved to Germany so we followed, but I was not strong enough to make a real go of it so we came home (maybe if we had stayed things would be different ), this delayed his graduation by a year, then he began to apply for postdocs and got rejections and this delayed graduation by a second year, and what followed was hard. It is hard to see your dream fall apart around you, to see what you have been working toward for years not work out at all, and to believe you were led down a path by God only to have nothing but heartache come from it. Then we come to this year and things don't go any differently. So we might ask: what was the point? We don't really know. He had a hard time and has met with many rejections, and the end result isn't what we thought. It isn't what we hoped and prayed for. Where we go next probably isn't where we will stay long-term. Maybe it will be a place to give us some guidance, clarity, or who knows maybe we will stay for awhile. 

He didn't want to go to graduation. He didn't really feel like celebrating not achieving his ultimate goal. I guess what I want to say is- No matter the outcome you did it. You did it while maintaining a marriage, your family became huge and you managed to build strong relationships with your children while doing it, when it may have felt like giving up was the answer you didn't, and getting your PhD is no small thing no matter if the career path you are now on isn't the one you thought it would be. Plus, it is just really cool that you can make people call you Dr. Weigel if you want.  I love you and am proud of you and all the hard work you put in and all that you have gone through to get here. You are super awesome.