Last week was graduation week in Athens and our family was well represented
Livia, the youngest daughter, received her BBA in marketing. She fought through some serious obstacles to graduate on time.
As she was headed home for the holidays in December 2019, some idiot fell asleep at the wheel, came across three lanes of traffic and hit her Toyota 4-Runner head on. She suffered an ankle fracture that gives her trouble to this day. She was otherwise bruised and battered by the air bags but the Good Lord was looking after her and she was soon on the mend.
Then, three months later, COVID-19 struck. The campus was shut down and was a long time in reopening. In the interim, Livia and her fellow students had to learn to take classes online.
This was not exactly the campus experience she had signed up for. Many events were eliminated completely and UGA, a seething cauldron of vitality on its worst day, was near a ghost town.
Livia was at Georgia at a good time in its football history, however. Though 2020 was truncated by the virus, the Dawgs went 45-7 during her four years and she was in the stadium in Indianapolis when the Dawgs won their first national title in 41 years in January.
Livia walked across the stage at the UGA Coliseum Friday afternoon and got her diploma. That night, she was on the field at Sanford Stadium for the main ceremony which was simply awesome.
She has accepted a position with Oracle Netsuite and will be moving to Nashville soon to start work.
She will excel. She has always excelled. She is also resilient, having overcome multiple soccer injuries and other assorted obstacles along life’s way.
She was joined on the field by Laura, her mom, who, after retirement, went back to school at UGA Griffin to finish her college work. She earned a degree in consumer economics with a concentration in financial planning.
She plans to volunteer her time in teaching financial literacy to young people, the underprivileged and veterans – a noble cause indeed!
I watched the festivities with the eldest daughter May Melton. She had been on the field four years previously receiving three degrees. She spent three years with Newell in Atlanta before taking a position with Unilever. She will be moving to the Soho district in New York City to to broaden her career horizons this summer.
As I was preparing to leave for Athens Friday morning, I got an e-mail inviting me to my 50th high school reunion. What is left of the Class of 1972 from Montgomery County High School will gather together in August.
In early September, 1972 my parents dropped me off at my dorm at UGA. Having spent the prior two years in tiny Ailey, Ga (population 350), I had a lot to learn about a lot of things but I graduated. Not right on time, but I made it.
The University of Georgia has been a huge part of my life these 50 years that have gone by so, so fast.
The best of those times have been watching the Geiger girls graduate.
They are a trio of superstars and a force to be reckoned with!
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