com·mence·ment (k-mnsmnt)

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Having our fourth child graduate is a little like moving from your life long home: an end, a beginning. New wonder, uncertainty, challenge, excitement, fear (quickly replaced by faith) :) Today is a time of beginnings for the whole family. And we are embracing it, although at some moments we are looking for anything to hold on to that seems familiar, safe.

Josh is a graduate, with honors, and accepted to Brigham Young University in the fall. But he is still our youngest son, a junior (graduated a year early) and the life of the party around our house, so it is really hard to accept that he is moving on from home and family. But he has things to do and places to see, people to meet and plans to make. And after all, we raised him to be independent. And now, we get to enjoy the fruits of those labors (and watch in amazement as he creates a life of his own.)

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go....

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Dr. Seuss

WE LOVE YOU JOSHUA MASON GILL--THANK YOU FOR THE 17 WONDERFULLY YEARS YOU SPENT IN OUR HOME!