He did it!

It’s 7:45 pm, and we are about an hour away from home. We left Arlington this morning at 6 am for our son Sam’s pinning ceremony for nursing in Delhi, NY.

Sam had the whole day planned out, which we loved because we were his guests. We got to see many of his friends we’ve met before and met a few new ones. 

The pinning ceremony…turns out we couldn’t even step on the college campus. We ended up watching the ceremony at his college family’s house with his friends.

We never saw a nursing pinning ceremony before. We didn’t know about Florence Nightingale’s lantern and what it symbolizes. We watched the ceremony with all nurses, and they told us a little bit about their ceremonies. I know I would have been choked up if I had been there, but it’s still not the same watching it on tv.

One important part of the ceremony is when each new nurse thanks those who helped, taught, encouraged, or supported them. It was supposed to be part of a PowerPoint presentation, which we didn’t get to see on zoom. All we saw on the screen were the words covid 19 and a bunch of shit about it. Yeah, we know all about it by now. Literally, we stared at that for 20 minutes. If we knew what we were missing, it would have been worse. We found out later when we saw Sam.

Sam graduated cum laude and was was one of 6 males in a class of 45 students. More than half the students he started with his freshman year dropped out of the program. 

He earned an excellence award in medical and another for his community service hours with the Delhi EMS & Fire Dept. He ran an untold amount of rescue calls every week even with his busy school schedule, studying, working at the college part-time, and clinicals over an hour away while keeping a 3.79 GPA. 

So today, he was welcomed into the nursing community. He wants to take his RN test ASAP. He will be an RN at 20 years old. I drank and acted stupid when I was 20 years old. He doesn’t take after me, thank God. 

After going out for a celebration dinner, his friends, EMS colleagues, and college family all said how much they would miss him. I thanked them for looking after him and teaching him so much. He found a wonderful community, made friends for life, and had a great college experience even during a pandemic. 

To say how proud we are would be an understatement. To say how tired I am right now while Marty is driving us home is an understatement. 

We have to unpack a load of Sam’s things that we took home for him in our delivery van. Then we need to start packing up for the Troy Farmers Market in the morning. 

Yes, we will be back on the road again tomorrow morning at 6 am. I’m so looking forward to Sunday…a day to rest. Real rest.

Happy Friday, guys! I am making myself a double dirty vodka martini when we get home; after packing up, I’m hitting the hay. 😴