Rite of passage

The routine is pretty much the same most mornings.  I get up and walk first thing.  If it is above 40 degrees, I wear shorts.  I have several routes, but each one of them takes me by Samford Hall before I return home.  If I am lucky, I pass the clock tower at 9:00 a.m. and get to hear the bells play Auburn’s fight song, “War Eagle”.

As the university approaches the end of a semester and graduation gets closer, students start showing up to have their pictures made.  Elaborate cameras and multiple poses usually show that a professional photographer is taking the pictures.  

This past Saturday morning, as I passed Samford Lawn, I noticed a girl taking a photo of a young male graduate.  He had his cap and gown on and was leaning against one of the gates, in a casual pose.  

I walked further up the street before turning around and going back to the young couple.  Something about that simple pose made me want to talk to them.   

“Congratulations”, I said as I walked up.  I introduced myself and we started talking.  Adam and Emma are their first names.  I did not ask for their last.  

They could be poster children for an Auburn recruitment campaign.  I told them that I walked by Samford Hall every morning and had seen these rituals of graduation pictures for the past seven years.  However, it was Adam leaning against the gate, halfway in and halfway out, that for some reason made me turn around to talk with them.

I told them that I had taken only three pictures on my own graduation day.  One picture was of myself in my cap and gown.  The second photo was with my college roommate and lifelong friend, Bill Moench.  The third was with the girl I was dating.  I told them we later got married and we were still together 48 years later.

We briefly discussed how much had changed in the 50 years between my graduation picture and Adam’s.  Yet, everyone still wants that picture that says “I made it”.

Adam gave me his number and permission to use his picture if I wrote this article about him.  He was impressed that I could enter his number into my cellphone, commenting that I was more tech savvy than his own grandparents.  A nice thing to say, whether true or not.

I realized as I walked away that I did not know if Adam and Emma dated, or if she was just a friend, or perhaps a photographer.  I do not know where they are from or what their plans are, if any.   It does not matter. 

It gave me a warm feeling that we are part of the same Auburn family who experienced the same rite of passage almost exactly half a century apart.  Based on our brief encounter, I have a feeling Adam and Emma are both well prepared to go out and take on the world.

 Congratulations, Adam and best wishes to you and Emma.  War Eagle!

o0o

Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]