BJ Graduates - for real

It's been so long since his journey through college began. After spending the first year of school at UW-Oshkosh in the pre-engineering program, it was already time to transfer into the engineering school at UW-Milwaukee. And after three years there, BJ's decided to work a co-op job for the city of Waukesha, then spent a summer working as an intern for the city of Kenosha, he still is a few credits shy from graduation. At the end of the co-op, he completed that last semester of schooling and luckily the city of Waukesha gave him a part-time position so he could make some extra cash during school. Anyway, 6 years later he is finally done. Working at the two city jobs gave him a broad understanding of new construction, constant repair of old construction, city government and politics, and government workers - both good and not so good. I've always said that whether an experience is good or bad, as long as you learned something, it was worthwhile. He learned alot. He learned about good managers and bad employees, contractors, developers, engineers and the work that they do, and how to work with them all. Unfortunately for the young, a little disillusionment comes with working. Especially when the dream and the reality are somewhat different. His experiences gave him a good start and now he has a job with a company whose goal is to be the largest construction company in the world. They are already extremely large, he had to interview in Vancouver, WA for a job assignment in Winterhaven, CA. He is smart and I am certain that success is well within his reach.

The graduation ceremony was a wonderful celebration with all the pomp and circumstance to be expected. It was a thrill to see him walk in with all the other graduates. We were so proud. As he headed across the stage to get his degree, we all screamed. Bailee, Lauren, and I were definitely out-shouted by Jeff. He was just beaming with excitement for his son. After the ceremony we went to Port of Hamburg to meet up with BJ's friends. A nice group of them stopped in. BJ decided that we would go for dinner at Celito Lindo's, a nice simple place with good Mexican food. We all had a great time drinking margaritas and congratulating him on his success.