B is for Bachelor's degree

We have a lot of these in our family and we’re about to get two more, from one daughter.  Birdie is going to graduate on May 7 with two degrees, one in Athletic Training and the other in Exercise Science.  Not that the rest of us never worked hard for our degrees, but the amount of hours that Birdie has had to put into her majors is CRAZY!  She has spent, literally, hundreds upon hundreds of observation hours in the training room, on various sporting fields and events, and even in orthopedic surgeries.  The courses she has had to take would easily prepare her for med school.  And she loves it.  Whenever she talks about some type of injury she uses those big words that none of us understand causing us to, repeatedly, ask her to ‘dumb it down’ for us.  Whenever more than one of those Athletic Training majors get together, they sound like they are communicating in a secret language that only they understand.  The rest of us have degrees in the arts, or social sciences, or education.  We know nothing at all about anatomy, physics, diseases, injuries…but Birdie does.  And she knows a lot. 
  

We come from family who believes, strongly believes, (ok, we might hinge on the fanatic side) in the value of a good education.  Both sets of my grandparents believed in education.  My mother’s parents stated, without hesitation, that “your education is not over until you have that college degree in your hand.”  My parents passed that on to me, and I passed it on to my girls (although they did have one advantage that I didn't, they knew it was also ok if they didn't want to go to college.  Oh, and that sound you hear?  That's my grandparents rolling over in their graves at that statement).  And it worked- we are 4 for 4 on daughters who attended college.  Our two youngest daughters are there now; one is graduating in May and the other, the last one, the baby, is finishing up her sophomore year and is an education major.  Between my mother, her sister, my four daughters and I, we are holders of 7 bachelor degrees (9 on May 7^th); 3 masters’ degrees; and one PhD.  And we are proud because we poured a lot of time and effort into those degrees—some of us poured a lot of alcohol during those years as well, but that’s another story altogether.  

The funny thing is, although I am very appreciative of my own degrees, it pales in comparison to how proud I am of my girls.  All of them have/will have more to show for their degrees than I ever did.  They worked harder, played harder, and were/have been/are WAY more involved in activities (sororities, sports, counsels, leadership roles, committees, etc.) than any of their predecessors.  Not a day goes by that I fail to realize how truly blessed we are by our four lovelies.  This group of education addicts just gets better with each generation.  Oh, and don’t let Hubs fool you.  Even though his parents did not shove instill fanatical crazy ridiculous over-zealous strong educational goals on their kids, he is one of the proudest fathers you will ever see at a college graduation.  He’s the one behind the video camera with the puffed out chest swearing that he most definitely is NOT crying.  Yeah, we’re saps too.          

This is the 1st day of the A-Z Blog Challenge for the month of April.  I decided to try this challenge in the hopes of keeping some momentum going; getting my brain to stay warmed-up; and trytrytry to improve my writing--well, really, to find my voice.  Just click the badge on my sidebar to join in the challenge!  

OH, and PLEASE go visit The LG Report and cast your vote for TUCKER in the cutest pet contest over there!  Tucker says, "Woof! Woofy, woofin!"  Which translates to: Please vote for me I really want to win that bag of treats!  A GREAT BIG Thank you and HUGS galore to those of you who already have voted for the Tucky Bug!