Reunion with Fudan Classmate

Two days ago, June 17, Paul and I went to the Santa Cruz Wharf to meet my schoolmate Michael Lu for lunch. At 11:30 a.m., it was busy inside Riva Fish House, partly because of a sudden heat wave in the Bay Area, partly because of the COVID-19 restrictions being lifted in California two days previously. Our thirty minutes' wait list period was mercifully spared, for Michael had already been inside the restaurant to secure the table. He called my cell phone to warn us, but it was buried and muffled in my purse. Deservedly, I was downgraded to the lowest caste of those who do not use the cell often in our group WeChat.

I have not seen Michael since our graduation from Fudan in 1982. He has really changed, establishing himself from a news reporter to a successful family law lawyer. After a decades-long legal career and raising a family of four, he has sold his law firm and transitioned to a final retirement. Unlike some schoolmates who were selected by the university authorities to go to Cambridge or Harvard, Michael started from scratch by putting himself through law school, and set up his own practice in the state of Maryland.

Prior to out meeting, Michael always struck me as a little too self-satisfied. But, in person, he is sincere and soft spoken, quickly winning Paul's heart. Without any reservations, the quiet Paul readily narrated his own legal success with navigating through the troublesome INS for our two family members.

Owing to either his profession or personality, Michael is well-informed of the lives and achievements of our schoolmates of '77 and '78 in the Foreign Languages Department. It seems that everyone has had a go after graduation, either as top academies, or as ordinary professionals. The university equipped us well with its fame and quality teaching. Now we are facing the final equalizer: retirement and eternity. A brave new world!

Courtesy of Titangos Photography

 

Back to Berkeley to Celebrate Stanford Graduates

Last Wednesday, June 16, Paul and I went to Berkeley to celebrate our youngest niece Emily and her boyfriend Justin, graduating from Stanford University. 

It is an emotional trip for us both on multiple levels. It was truly a joyous moment for us all. Emily is the last in her generation to graduate from college. After our son Nick graduated from Berkeley in 2008, we did not visit there since. Since June 1996 when I left Berkeley for Santa Cruz, I had not lived there on a daily basis. Now everything seemed at once familiar and different. Many memorable buildings along Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive were all there, looking the same, but we knew instinctively that they had been changed with either ownership or functional purpose. 

At 6:00 p.m., we arrived at Josephine Street where my middle niece Stephanie and her boyfriend Tyler, were hosting the celebration party with due coordination with cousin Emily. They moved here during the COVID-19 limitations, with only a virtual tour of the apartment. But it was a cozy place for a pair of graduates. Since we were half an hour early, we put ourselves to use by helping the hosts clean, wash, and decorate to get ready. It was a hot day throughout the Bay Area that day. With the San Francisco Bay within the sight, it was actually quite pleasant on the roof deck. 

We were soon joined by Nick from Pleasanton, and much later by our guests of honor, accompanied by Emily's mother, my sister-in-law Sue. They were delayed on their way in from Napa, due to road accidents and commuting traffic. The food sponsored by my sister Hui from the East Coast was plentiful and delicious, just enough for the ferocious appetites of five young people plus their three elders.

Looking around at all five happy youngsters, especially the two nieces, one who starts her Masters program in the fall, while the other graduates next June from her doctoral program at Berkeley, Sue, Paul and I were smiling with an inner sigh of relief. For now, we have managed to complete the passing of the baton from our parents. The road ahead is wide open, though not without setbacks and obstacles. Hopefully with adequate upbringing, education, family support and their inner strength, they are able to go forward and onward.

Courtesy of Titangos Photography