Monday, May 20, 2019

Sean's Graduation Weekend

Sean graduated form Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in Statistics / Computer Science this past weekend.  I couldn't be more proud of him, especially after having overcome some daunting health issues which had delayed this event but could not prevent it.  
 Mary Beth and I were joined by three of Sean's aunts, who were representing my Alabama based family - here's a picture  with his great aunts Jana and Elaine.
and his Aunt Lori, who I grew up with.  These ladies are not demure southern belles and made a god-awful racket whistling and cheering while which made Sean turn beat red - it was great.  2 funny stories.  As they were yelling one family to our right turned and gave us the stink eye as, they were more "proper".  That was a big mistake as Lori flashed here badge (she's in law enforcement) and told them to mind their own business (maybe not exactly in those words).  After the Sean got his degree a second family asked if we would yell for their daughter as she got her degree.  Of course the ladies were happy to oblige.  I'm just thankful, Lori left her gun back in Mobile as things could have gone badly.

A picture of Sean with his friend Dani.  They were' officers in the Robotics club and built an autonomous buggy together.  I suspect there will be an upcoming trip to California for Sean.
A picture of Sean with his mom in front of the CMU fence.  This fence has been painted over to announce various clubs / events for close to 75 years.  It started out as a standard wooden fence and now has thousands of coats of paint.  Keeping the thing standing is a key project for seniors in the engineering school.
 Sean gave us a tour of the Robotics club.  He is the only person whose been president of the club who wasn't an engineering student.
In the machine room of the robotics club is this fantastic 1930's metal lather from Pratt & Whitney.  It still works!

I know this is a very self indulgent post but I couldn't be more proud of my son and happy for him.  Given his past struggles, we focused solely on getting to graduation and the next task for him will be to figure out what he wants to do as an adult.  It should be interesting to watch.  Personally, I'm hoping for he picks London but we'll see what comes next.

5 comments:

BigLee said...

Congratulations to Sean! A proud moment that every parent should be allowed to boast about, so no apologies needed for being a proud dad.

Peter Douglas said...

Well done to the whole family. And embarrassing your adult children is the goal of every parent. Bonus points for doing i5 a5 such a public event.

john de terre neuve said...

I well earned congratulations, I would pick London too!

Millsy said...

There's nothing more satisfying than seeing your own son achieve a significant milestone in the face of adversity. My son had health challenges too including epilepsy and despite everything he is now a VR software developer and teaches kids to code.

Congrats to you and your wife on raising a wonderful young man and especially to Sean for everything he has achieved! Keep the updates coming mate.

Curt said...

Congratulations Miles, a great day for the family.