O P I N I O N
NOT THAT PROFOUND
By Nathan Graziano
On Dec. 29, at the Bishop McVinney Auditorium in Providence, R.I., the Providence Fire Department Training Academy graduated its 57th class. There were 16 trainees in the class, one of whom was my son, Owen.
I’m not usually sentimental at graduation ceremonies. Honestly, they’ve become so ubiquitous that they’ve lost most of their symbolic significance. When you have graduation ceremonies for preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, trade school, clown school, beauty school, college, grad school, or any other time that a curriculum is completed, the ceremonies tend to lose their shine.
But my son’s graduation got to me, particularly given Owen’s situation a few years prior, when my wife and I both believed that the boy would be living with us and stealing my socks from my dresser for many decades to come…