A Juris Doctrate

It's official...

henceforth shall she be known as Juris Doctrate Dione!

After 3 years of intense law school classes, briefs that are anything but brief, moot court where no one was moot, and countless (seriously don't even try to count them) hours and hours of studying...she finally finished law school. For baking celebratory delicious meals, Cass gave her sister a Le Creuset casserole pot. Now that she's done with law school there will be more time for cooking.

I made her a new quilt to document the accomplishment. It took hours and hours too...merely a drop in the bucket compared to law school. Dorothy Doodle Dog really liked the new quilt and claimed it immediately as hers!

The entire family loaded up our cars and drove the hours and hours it took to get to Los Angeles...we wouldn't miss her day. Dean immediately found Dione's honey stash!

Olivia was very helpful when shopping for the graduate's new dress and heels.

We had a fabulous time together after so many long months apart. Dione was thrilled, and giddy, and ecstatic, and elated, and kept repeating "It's My Day!"

UCLA has a beautiful campus...the perfect location for an outdoor graduation. I am reminded of the day we moved Dione to LA nearly three years ago. Getting up to make an early start for home, we left her in the hotel room all by herself, with nothing but a late check-out. As we drove through the early morning deserted freeways those years ago, tears welled up in my eyes...I felt I was deserting my little girl.

And here she as...three years later...walking past me with her UCLA School of Law graduating class. Confident and full of grace, her knowledge of the law is all neatly stored beneath that black graduation cap in her young and sturdy mind.

Oh I cried...I'll be the first to admit it. Watching my child achieve her dream after years of perseverance and tenacity.

The year Dione applied to law school there were 8000 applicants...the largest in UCLA history. Just roughly four percent were accepted!

The hooding ceremony is steeped in tradition...a reward for hard work and dedication devoted to the study and pursuit of a degree in law. Conferred on Dione today as she becomes a UCLA School of Law graduate and alumni. 

That's a proud father!

Seeing that much joy and satisfaction on her face at this moment is what being a parent is all about.

And the heels were a necessity, don't you think?


I adore these two...sisters in the hood!

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
   -Kahlil Gibran


We love you Dione. And with our best "Dione face"...CONGRATULATIONS! We are over the moon and busting with pride!