A Mormon (Feminist!) Image: Graduation Day
This is a picture of my husband and I on the day of our graduation with our undergraduate degrees. This week is our eighth wedding anniversary, and during the last eight years we’ve managed to earn five degrees between the two of us. Like many other young Mormons we met at BYU (after serving in the same mission), dated for a few months, and got married over Thanksgiving break while we were still undergrads. We had the same major and took many classes together; it was so fun to share books and discuss them (we each wrote our own papers though), and even after our shared undergraduate experience ended we have continued the education conversation. I was pregnant with our daughter in this photo, and took the next year off from school before returning for a master’s degree (my husband went straight into a master’s program). For the next few years we alternated school, part-time work, and child-rearing as he earned a second master’s and I started a PhD program. Right now the PhD is on hiatus for a lot of reasons and we’re starting a new phase of our lives that doesn’t include formal schooling. It’s a little weird. I’m grateful for a husband, professors, fellow Church members, and a family that have all supported my educational goals.
Submitted by FoxyJ
This photograph is part of our ongoing series highlighting images from our readers lives. Comments to the post are encouraged. In addition we invite you to submit your own images to the Mormon Image series. Rules and instructions, including submissions guidelines, can be found here.
Congratulations to both of you on your achievements!
You beat me to it! I was going to submit a picture a lot like this. I graduated with my MBA on the same day DH graduated with his BS. I was 7 months pregnant with my first son. Since then, DH finished his PhD, and I started (and quit) my PhD (not the right time, but someday). I, too, am grateful for a husband (and mom) who supports me in my educational pursuits.
Comment by Stephanie — November 23, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
Congratulations! It’s really exciting to have achieved so much academically, and also to be celebrating your eighth wedding anniversary! In a marriage, every year is a huge achievement. It’s not about just staying together, but about continuing to grow together.
I know that, for me, graduating from law school was very hard, in the sense that, for so long, I’d been used to sharing this big part of my life with Jim. All of of a sudden, I didn’t know what the heck he was doing every day! Now, I don’t mean that in the controlling, “I want to monitor his every move” sense, but in the sharing goals and dreams, and being able to communicate effectively about our lives sense. For years, I’d been used to sharing not just classes, but understanding–when I had a big test coming up, or he did, we could talk about that and we understood what the other one meant.
Then, all of a sudden, we were off in our separate orbits doing something completely different every single day! Now, I’m a lawyer, but I can say with complete confidence that I have just NO understanding of what it is he does every day. It was a hard transition for me, from intuitively understanding the problems and stresses of his life to relying on his (sometimes patchy) explanations.
Comment by CJ — November 23, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
Awesome! One request, though: could we get pictures that are a little bigger? I can barely see most of these great pictures!
Comment by Austin Smith — November 23, 2009 @ 7:04 pm
Austin, that was as big as I could get that pic to go. I guess it depends on the file size and this pic is too small.
next time.
Comment by mfranti — November 23, 2009 @ 8:03 pm
Great photo!
Comment by Eris — November 23, 2009 @ 9:13 pm
My husband and I are both graduating in May. I am so excited that we can take pictures of the two of us in our caps and gowns.
Comment by shannon j — November 23, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
Wonderful photo! To be married, have children and continue an education takes incredible teamwork between the two of you. It’s quite a testament.
Thank you for sharing this, it made me smile this morning.
Comment by Lianne — November 24, 2009 @ 7:57 am
Confession:
I read the first few lines of this (remember the picture was very small!) and thought “Oh, it’s some academic power couple that I would probably never be friends with.”
Scroll down to the submission line and—“Oh, it’s FoxyJ who I love!”
That’ll teach me to go by first impressions.
Comment by Katya — November 24, 2009 @ 8:45 am
Sorry–I didn’t realize the picture quality was so poor when I submitted it
This was before we had a digital camera and I’m still figuring out my scanner settings.
Thanks for your kind comments; still figuring out my life without academia, but my husband now works at home so sometimes I look over his shoulder at what he’s doing
Comment by FoxyJ — November 24, 2009 @ 11:58 pm
I am trying to finish my phd with two kids under three. I have no idea how I am going to do it but it just seem like a waste since I am already in my dissertation phase. It’s just hard to want to work some more at the end of a long day with kids. I love hearing other moms struggle with finding the right time for school. My husband is extremely supportive but I find that no one really understand the internal struggle I have about it. I enjoyed reading your experiences and thank you for sharing.
Comment by littlebetafish — November 27, 2009 @ 2:05 pm