Sunday two women friends of mine graduated with their PhDs.

Their dean and faculty advisor was also a woman. All three were the same age and had become close friends.

They had worked so hard it was beyond reason, seven days a week, evenings and a good part of the nights too.

They had given up their jobs, made barely any money and lived meagerly. The pressure filled, seemingly endless work had hung over their heads with a real possibility of failure.

During graduation, undergraduates are marched on and off stage as fast as the announcers can say their names. Not so with PhD graduates.

This university has only awarded 880 PhDs in 45 years. They make a big deal of conferring the doctorate degree, with a lot of ceremony. There is a special reception the day before. At the graduation the doctorate candidates come in first and sit in the front rows. The front of the program lists each PhD with their dissertation topic. A leader of the university speaks about the significance of the doctorate degree and the expectation for them to take their turn as leaders in meeting society's challenges.

Each doctoral graduate goes up on stage with their faculty advisor. Their dissertation topic is announced. The faculty advisor and some important guy puts the graduates newly earned hood over their heads and they shake hands. Then the new doctors shake hands and get their photo taken with the president.

Since these two women had the same advisor, the three of them went up together and were announced one after the other.

Having the three of them on stage together and thinking about what they had done together for the last four years, choked me up a little bit.

I need a better "Waa Hoooo", because they said they did not hear me.