<p>Can you record a video of yourself telling the graduate (the one you can’t be with) how proud you are of them and email it to them the morning of their big day? Sort of a way of “being with them” without being there?</p>
<p>I got my PharmD in 1989, and at least back then it was a big deal. There was an event at the main campus where they just said “school of pharmacy” and we all stood up and yelled (funny story, the dentists were behind us and when they said “school of dentistry” they threw all the teeth they had collected over the 4 years in the air), then in the afternoon there was a very nice ceremony at the pharmacy school. I still remember the band, the doves, the speaker, etc… Even if you can’t go I would encourage your kid to go through the ceremony.</p>
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<li><p>Your kids should go to the ceremonies whether you attend or not. They might consider it not a big deal right now but it’s the type of thing they might later regret not doing and why not attend - they won’t be doing anything else then and their friends/colleagues will be there.</p></li>
<li><p>You should attend the grad ceremony of one of the kids - probably the younger one. </p></li>
<li><p>Attend the special ceremony (white-coat?) for the other one. It may be about as significant as the actual grad ceremony. My engineering kid had a special engineering ‘ring’ ceremony with just the school of engineering grads and it was more personal and more significant IMO than the grad ceremony which was a few days later.</p></li>
<li><p>If your sibling is willing (or preferably ‘wants’) to attend the other’s ceremony and video it then go ahead and take her up on it. She and that kid can have some fun and you can view the video afterwards - perhaps during a small celebration at home later.</p></li>
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<p>I think the attitude of both of your kids is admirable.</p>
<p>These suggestions are great (even the helicopter, although not financially feasible LOL). As odd as it might sound, the kids are cheering up became I’m so upset about this.</p>
<p>I’ll call both schools next week, to find out if there are separate ceremonies for either of the programs so I might be able to get to something for each kid. Right now I’ll tentatively plan on attending the college graduation, and the sibling will go to the PharmD graduation with a video camera. </p>
<p>And thank you all for the nice words about them. They’re all sensible and hard workers, and I know their other parent would have been proud about how they turned out (even the one that just passed the bar exam this summer and got a job as another dang lawyer — although my spouse wouldn’t have used the word “dang.”)</p>
<p>Check to see if there are any additional graduation festivities at either school on earlier days. </p>
<p>I remember that when I graduated with my BS, there was a separate ceremony a day or two ahead of time just for the electrical engineers, that was much smaller and more personal, and included some individual awards. My Dad had a conflict with the actual graduation, so he attended the EE ceremony instead, which was more personally meaningful to me, since I got an award.</p>
<p>What about a little technology? Have the sibling that is going stream you the ceremony - using their i phone, or skype or something? It’s possible they are not at the EXACT same time - so you can watch one virtually while preparing to go to the other, or waiting for it to start. Ask some young people who are more tech savvy then I how you might pull this off!</p>