Coronation Graduation

This morning, King Charles III was crowned in Westminster Abbey. No, I didn’t watch it, but I’m sure it was a beautiful pageant. After all, it started at 5 a.m. local time. I was trying to sleep.

This weekend, but especially today, Penn State graduates its class of 2023. This happens at various building on campus, depending upon the college. When I graduated in 1989, the College of Education ceremony was in Eisenhower auditorium, whose air conditioners were broken. It was so hot in there!

I remember the night before I graduated, I walked around campus alone, ending up at the Nittany Lion Shrine around 1:30 a.m.. It was just me at the huge hunk of limestone. I remember thinking how I didn’t want it to end. After all, I didn’t have a job, and it was the end of a time when my only real responsibility was to attend classes. Also, I’d never be around so many unattached people to meet. The possibilities were endless, and, due to depression, I squandered them. Deep inside, my dark secret lay quietly, driving the anger and depression. I was years away from meeting my Wife, and decades from that secret bursting forth to ravage what life I had.

But that night, I sat in front of the statue, and wished that the time would go on forever. Which of course, it didn’t, as time is rather merciless. The next day, I graduated, and, by the end of that day, was back at my parent’s house in my small room.

But I’d gone through the ceremony. One of life’s ways of marking passages of time. So many ceremonies go unmarked, like when I finally realized I was transgender. The ceremony marking my name change was a court order followed by a Coke at a nearby place with my lawyer.

We transgender people have dark times coming. Maybe we should celebrate our ceremonies while we can and celebrate each other while we still can. Maybe that will give us the strength to endure what’s coming.

Stay safe and be well.

Tags: featured, Transgender

Category: Transgender Opinion