It was an awesome day for the Kralovec family! Our eldest son Owen graduated from Northern Michigan University on Saturday. The ceremony was held in the Superior Dome, aka “Yooper Dome” and it is one of the largest wooden dome structures in the world. It opened in 1991 and can seat up to 16,000 people. Thankfully, the ceremony was held indoors as it was a cool and windy day, although no snow flurries like on Friday. It takes a long time to announce 1000+ names, and luckily, Owen was near the front so we didn’t have to stay for the whole ceremony. Owen celebrated with a four-finger gesture signifying he finished his degree in four years. I took 5 years to complete my Bachelor’s degree as did my two brothers. Thank you Owen for saving us a year’s tuition!
After the ceremony, jet lag hit us and we took an afternoon nap. Owen and his roommates, “domestic Owen”, Jack, and Josh hosted a party for the parents and relatives. It was nice to get to know his roommates and their families. He made good friends here and grew up quite a bit over the four years. This is the purpose of college. He will make the Dean’s list again this semester with all As. He narrowly missed graduating with honors due to low grades in his first year. It was quite the transition for him to go from living life as an expatriate abroad to a provincial university in rural northern Michigan. I am from a small town in the Upper Peninsula, and with family and friends nearby, we thought NMU was a good choice for him. We had limited options for his education due to COVID. Owen’s first choice was to study at Queensland University in Australia due to his Australian citizenship. However, COVID restrictions had Australia shut down in July of 2021, and we weren’t sure how long the country would be in lockdown. We decided after visiting Marquette that summer and staying at the university for a night, to enroll in NMU. Owen would never be a perfect fit for the public university’s culture, but he did appreciate getting to know where I grew up and the natural beauty of Lake Superior and the deciduous/coniferous forests of the Upper Peninsula. People are friendly and very laid back here, not pretentious at all, and it is a safe and quiet place to live.
It was a classic Marquette early May afternoon. Very cold, but sunny. This is the first time I’ve been to the Upper Peninsula in May since the 1980s, and I forgot how long the winter and cold weather last. Marquette is a very liveable small town with many amenities, interesting people, and culture/arts offerings. Coupled with the scenic beauty with miles of biking/hiking/ski trails, coastline, fresh air, and water, it will be a great place to retire to someday. It is also in the ideal location for future generations, with climate change on the horizon. Hiking up to Sugarloaf Mountain on Sunday, I envisioned a coast full of condominiums and homes, as Americans flee the south and west and move to the Great Lakes region. I’ll be long gone from Earth when that happens, but I would love to come back and check it out in 200 years.
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