I'm composing this as a very proud uncle. Last week we celebrated as our nephew Ethan graduated from the University of Maryland. He didn't just graduate with a degree in public policy, and minors in Law and Society and Geographic Information Science, he was elected to give the undergraduate student address at the Public Policy School's graduation.
You can watch him give his speech below. I'd say he knocked it out of the park. Shira and I couldn't have been more impressed.
We also cheered him on at the main commencement ceremony. The university made the, let's call it, bold decision to have Kermit the Frog as their main speaker. Yes, you read that right: the plan was to have a puppet address a football stadium full of grads, families and friends. Jim Henson was a UMD graduate, so a love for Kermit runs deep in the school.
I personally had my doubts that this was a wise decision. But, to Kermit and the school administrator's credit, it totally worked. Here's what we saw as Kermit gave his speech:
With Kermit's spot on voice, gesticulations and outfit, as well as our inability to see the puppeteer, the immersive experience truly held. Here's the stadium singing Rainbow Connection. You can see at the end, even my Dad was singing along.
We closed out the festivities on Sunday with a graduation party in the park. We ate cake, savored seeing family and friends and even had a little 2 on 2 basketball with my brothers and Ethan. I'm proud to say that nobody left the game with anything torn or sprained, so that was a nice bonus.
Ethan, we're so impressed with your accomplishments and are excited to cheer you on as you start your next chapter. As a wise frog once said, life's like a movie. write your own ending.
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