June 2005

June 10th, 2005

Graduation is in the air. This evening our finest students will walk across the stage in a symbolic march from one life to another. Nature’s commencement happens with less grandeur and pomp, but the transition is unmistakably there. Moths and butterflies fresh from their chrysalides have made dramatic transformations. Starlings and jays, sparrows and robins have hatched, grown feathers and left their nests. These fledglings have embarked on an independent life, but their begging calls and insistent wing flutter reveals that they are not quite ready to leave the support of their parents.

And so we are reminded of our own conflicted feelings. Our students have grown in our care, they’ve added knowledge and experience, and they are about to fledge the nest. As they embark on their new life we are proud of them, but there is an urge to feed them one more morsel, to shadow them as they move about the world. Conflicted or not, they are ready and we are ready. Time to take flight.

with an eye on nature,

Wally

Wally Shriner
Department of Life Sciences