Rites of Passage

No one ever told me that after you hit your 30s you cry at any rite of passage (weddings, graduations and sometimes sappy commercials [thank god I don't watch hardly any TV]), but it's true. I remember this phenomenon as a child watching adults in happy moments with tears running down their faces. "Mom, aren't you happy Joe and Jane Doe are getting married? Why are you crying?," I'd ask. I never pursued it any further and just assumed that adults were weird. But now this disease has infected me and I'm scared, and I can't seem to find any explanation for it in any of my anatomy or physiology texts, nursing school lectures or nursing journals. Is there some deterioration of the lacrimal duct as we slide into senescence? Well this past weekend was a perfect example of LDD (Lacrimal Duct Deterioration).

All joking aside, I have never been more emotional at any graduation before, and I don't think the severity of my symptoms were due to LDD, but instead witnessing the culmination of years and years of hard work and perseverance of my brother, Johnny, in his nursing program. There were moments when he doubted himself, did poorly on a test (despite studying harder than I have the patience for) and sometimes even received doubt and undue criticism from some of his own professors that should have been taking him under their wing and providing him with support. Some people would have shirked at the difficulty and criticism and given up, but Johnny would simply pick himself back up, press on and study harder and was completely unwilling to give up. Johnny, I'm so proud of you and this achievement given all that you had to endure and all the courage and strength you had to muster. What an inspiration!

Johnny's Graduation 2010 from Becky Trafecanty on Vimeo.