My watch

I don't wear the watch Gumpy gave me for my college graduation very often.  I usually save it for special occasions or big meetings where I think I need just a little edge.  I wore it last night again, this time for the graduation ceremony at Maple Valley High School, which I attended to help hand out the awards for the Maple Valley Memorial Scholarship Foundation.

My high school graduation was not much of a milestone for me.  Sure it was important but we had moved to Traverse City in my Sophomore year of high school, so I had little emotional connection to my school and going to college was already a forgone conclusion in my mind.  That high school diploma was more of my ticket into college than a piece of paper to celebrate.  Family came out to visit and I had a graduation party with my best friend at the time, but it is not the graduation I am most proud of.

That day came six years later when I graduated from Oakland University with my Bachelors in Political Science.  Walking across stage at the Meadowbrook Music Theater, shaking Dr. Nesbary's hand first then having Dr. Klemanski hand me my diploma was an incredibly memorable experience.  I had worked hard, paying for school myself and I felt like I had earned every drop of ink on that certificate.

Afterward, we had a party at my Aunt and Uncle's house with family and close friends.  Gumpy gave me my watch that day, telling me just how proud he was of me.  My watch was just like his watch that I had admired for many years.  It symbolized that Gumpy was proud of me and my accomplishment.  It is a gift that I will always cherish.

Twelve years later, after aggressively fighting cancer for years, he began to really worry about me having something to remember him by.  He came back to the watch as the one accessory that a man needed to complete a professional look, and he wanted to give me a watch like his.  Whenever he was worried that I didn't have a watch, I would remind him that he gave me one just like his for graduation.  He would usually seem shocked, then pleased when Ema reminded him that I was correct.  And I would always be a little bit heartbroken, knowing that he could no longer remember one of my favorite days with him.  He desperately wanted to win his fight to the death with cancer, so he did everything he could to win.  The aggressive chemotherapy treatments that were meant to extend his life did just that, they extended his physical time with us.  Those same treatments robbed us all of the best of Gumpy.

When I wear the watch now, I always pause for a minute.  The green and red leaves that surround the 12 and 6 positions are a bit understated.  Citizens watches are not spectacular timepieces, they are functional.  I pause not for the beauty of the watch, although I find it to be a nice looking timepiece.  I pause with a twinge of pain, knowing that my proud, strong grandfather could no longer remember the moments in our relationship we both cherished.  That pain quickly fades to a smile, because putting the watch on gives me another reason to think about why Gumpy gave it to me and the college graduation tradition I hope to continue.