WHAT DOES ‘POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE’ SIGNAL?
THE COMMENCEMENT OF A HUGE TRANSITION
In addition to celebrating Father’s Day this month, millions of families will also set aside time for another monumental event: graduation. Regardless of your professional career, you’ve probably walked down a long aisle with “Pomp and Circumstance” blaring in the background a least a few times. Despite the awkward, square-shaped caps, graduation ceremonies provide some of the most emotional moments in students’ lives. They symbolize the culmination of hard work, but they also serve as the catalyst for some of life’s biggest transitions. This year, my oldest son is graduating from eighth grade and my daughter is graduating from preschool. While my wife is having a harder time acknowledging that our baby girl (the youngest of our kids) is officially starting kindergarten next year, our daughter feels absolutely ready. I think she’d start school today if she could! My son’s graduation from junior high marks a much bigger transition. He is now entering high school. So he’s not just moving from being the oldest on campus to the youngest; he has also reached the point where his grades can affect his future. Fortunately, he is embracing this change rather than being fearful of it. His approach to this transition reminds me of my freshman year in high school. That year, I ended up attending a completely different school — one that was 30 minutes away from my hometown. I chose to change schools, leaving my coaches, teachers, and friends, because I wanted to be closer to my dad, who lived near the new school. While I could have let this experience negatively affect me, I
chose to face the transition with hope and confidence instead — just like my son and daughter are doing now.
Any kind of life-altering transition has the ability to negatively or positively shape a person. While I’ve seen the good that can happen in my life and my kids’ lives when we face these transitions head on, I’ve also witnessed it in my patients’ lives. Transition, whether it occurs at school or in my operating room, is all about perspective. You determine your own experiences, so try to make them exciting rather than frightening.
INSPIRATION
YOU HAD ME AT ‘ROSÉ’
As Dr. Mike and the other board members for A Vintage Affair (AVA) remember all the dazzling highlights from the spring events, they also turn their sights to the most exciting event scheduled for October 2019, the annual Grape Stomp Festival! Since there are still a few months left to wait before attendees can pulverize the grapes with their feet, here’s a great bottle from Shale Oak Wines you can sip on to pass the time — while also beating the summer heat!
At our AVA Main event in April, we noticed that several attendees loved Shale Oak’s 2015 Rosé.
Rosé is what happens when the skins of red grapes touch the wine for only a short time. Where some red wines ferment for weeks at a time on red grape skins, rosé wines are stained red for just a few hours. While all rosés air on the side of delicate, semi-sweet delightfulness, Shale Oak’s 2015 Rosé is a blend of Syrah and Grenach, with a light strawberry cream on the nose that leads to a refreshingly dry finish filled with minerality. It’s certainly a tasty way to celebrate the start of summer!
CALL 615.567.5716 • 3
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter