Although I’m a New Yorker, I am living in the oh-so-civilized city of Boston for the moment. Which means–a car. This was not the weekend for a car in Boston. For every Massachusetts license plate I saw, there were two from out of town. Not only did drivers have no idea where they were going–the street sign policy in Boston can be reduced to: If you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t belong here–but parking was impossible.

Boston is a city that boasts more opportunities for higher education than any other in the United States. This weekend was graduation. Not at all of the schools, but a lot. Everyone and their sister had come to Boston from all over to celebrate the graduations of friends, siblings, children, and who knows else.

At one point I was driving home behind a poor dear who was at a total loss and I burst out laughing. No road rage here. Humor restored, I got to musing on the academic name for graduation which is… may we hear a proper drumroll please…

Commencement

To graduate means to leave something behind. To commence means to begin. I am both a wordsmith and a metaphysician. Everything has meaning if we’ll look for it. After I parked our car in its very own parking space, I repaired to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) to find out about commencement. It comes, of course, from the verb to commence. Commence comes from late Latin roots meaning intense initiation.

Commencement ritual is steeped in ivy-covered academic tradition. We have forgotten the initiation aspect of graduation. Students leave behind an old, younger self and begin another, newer chapter. Commencement means you don’t get to park and stay, you get to figure out new directions, and drive on. It was easy to keep my driving patience when I thought of all of us as undergoing intense initiation this commencement weekend.