patrick’s upenn graduation

I am so, so proud of this exceptional kid! I know I’m biased being that he’s my son and all, but his journey to get here has been full of so much hard work, a few big changes and a pandemic; impressive beyond belief!!

Graduating Regis High School 4 years ago, he didn’t get into ANY of his main choices for college and it was pretty devastating. He decided on William & Mary which ended up not being a good fit at all and he really struggled there- not academically, that he excelled in, but in being very unhappy. Dropping him off at the airport after Christmas break, seeing him depressed and not wanting to get on the plane back to school was so hard. For both of us. He reapplied to all the schools he didn’t get into the first go round plus a few others and got into them ALL (Georgetown, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, UPenn). I really thought it would be Georgetown but then UPenn accepted him and how do you say no to an Ivy League school? You don’t. So he transferred into UPenn for Sophomore year and everything was full steam ahead. He joined the Penn Transfer Student Organization  (where the following 2 years he served other transfer students as a VP ), joined a frat SAMmy (a jewish frat! so that was fun so he could be jew”ish” too!), worked his ass off for the next 3 years, working two jobs and taking a zillion classes and was able to graduate with a Bachelors AND a Masters degree in East Asian Languages & Civilizations. Also, he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and won what amounts to a Rhodes Scholarship to the Harvard of China- the Yenching Academy at Peking University in China on a full scholarship for another Masters degree. So he’ll be spending the next 1.5-2 years living and going to school in Beijing. That part as a mom I’m not super excited about but I’m so happy for Patrick that he worked so hard, overcoming the parts that were difficult to reach his goals! (and then some). But he’s been to China twice already (and is fluent in Mandarin) thru the US State Department so that makes me a little calmer. Little.

Ok, so mom brag over, here’s some pictures of Patrick and his friends on campus Monday after graduation. Congratulations to all these smartypants and I can’t wait to see where they all go and all the amazing things they do in the future!! Also, if you ever get the chance to go, dinner at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse is soooo good. And the VIP pineapple vodka? For sure!!