Ready To Launch

 Andrea and I ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude last week to attend the graduation of our son Dean.

Dean had selected for their collegiate studies East Carolina University which is where film star and national treasure Sandra Bullock went to school.

It is also located in what I call Satan's Arm Pit.

North Carolina stretches from the mountains to the sea and has a diverse selection of environments to choose from. Why Dean chose the one school in the hottest most HUMID part of the state, you got me. 

Well, Dean did his time and now he's out! 

The graduation ceremony was a big, massive affair held at the school's football stadium on a really hot day with 147% humidity. 

We did not go to that. 

What we did go to was held the night before indoors in a cool comfortable place at the ECU Student Center.  The event was called the Lavender Launch, an  annual commencement celebration to support ECU LGBTQ graduates. 

Unlike the virtually anonymous mob at the school graduation ceremony, this event allows each participating student to be acknowledged individually.   

The event is presented by the Dr. Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Center at East Carolina University. The ceremony was presented in a professional manner but with heart and compassion.

The ceremony was overseen by the center's current director, Mark Rasdorf.   Mark struck me as someone who is genuinely concerned about the welfare of the young people who come through the center looking for guidance and help. Dean assured me is that Mark really is what he appears to be and helped Dean with his own personal journey of transition.  

Mark had to hold back tears as the ceremony continued and elicited a big laugh when he paused to reflect on being compelled to cry. "It was in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy has to say goodbye to the Scarecrow and... and... I know I shouldn't say this but....  that was gay as fuck!"  

Dean said this was especially funny since the center has a moratorium on using bad language in public and that it was Mark of all people who broke it. 

After the presentation of awards and graduates, we had a lovely dinner of grilled chicken, broiled potatoes, macaroni and cheese and salad and of course for dessert, rainbow cake. It was very delicious.    

Andrea and I had to make some adjustments as parents in our relationship to our progeny. It is a vast understatement that Dean is not the child we sent off to college.  Sometimes I slip and think or say the wrong thing. 

But without a smidgen of a doubt, we are proud of Dean Long, college graduate and our son. 

Dude takes after his dad and can't help looking goofy in photos. 

This is Dean with his partner Aspen.  We met Aspen's parents for the first time and Dean was scared to death we were going embarrass him.   

That is ridiculous! Andrea and I perfectly able to act normal around Earth creatures  other people.  

Dean with the cast of Friends if the cast of Friends was (to quote Mark Rasdorf) "gay as fuck". 

Surrounded by some many happy, vibrant members of the LGBTQ community, I was struck by some I recalled the first time I attended a Gay Pride parade: the sheer amount of love and joy and compassion that everyone feels for each other.  

Congratulations to our son Dean on his graduation and the best of wishes as he launches the next chapter of his life.