{"id":137626,"date":"2025-05-18T13:11:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T04:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/?p=137626"},"modified":"2025-05-18T13:11:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T04:11:54","slug":"uh-college-graduation-our-big-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/?p=137626","title":{"rendered":"UH College Graduation: Our Big Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today was a big day for over 2,500 graduates participating in the 2025 University of Hawaii at Manoa commencement. \u00a0Luckily I have a very dear friend that gave me VIP passes that allowed us to see everything from the front row. \u00a0We even got into the special room where the President, Board of Directors, and very important people were preparing. \u00a0It was a big opportunity so I invited Mateus to share this special day with us. \"\"<\/p>\n

Mateus didn’t even know what college was. \u00a0But after this experience, he learned and knows the process of how to get into this prestigious college. \u00a0He told me after, “Uncle, Now I want to go to the University of Hawaii.” \u00a0You should have seen my smile. \"\"<\/p>\n

Everybody wearing nice clothes and of course I’m the only one wearing slippers. \u00a0Haha. \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

I got chicken skin watching the commencement. \u00a0It brought me back 32 years to this very same place. \u00a0I knew the excitement, I knew the nervousness, and I knew the uncertainty. \u00a0Graduating from college is a huge accomplishment but the pressure starts the day you step out into the real world. \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

World Champion and Gold Medalist Carissa Moore was the keynote speaker. \u00a0OMG, her speech was amazing! \u00a0I wish someone gave me that same speech 32 years ago because it was very inspiring and reassuring. \u00a0I’ll get more into that later. \"\"<\/p>\n

Since elementary school, I’ve always encouraged my Little Princess to go to college. \u00a0Later today, she said she did it for me, which made me cry. \u00a0I then told her, “you did it for yourself. \u00a0This day will give you the confidence and courage to accomplish anything you try in life. \u00a0You did it!” \u00a0Then I said “no, WE DID IT!” \u00a0Haha. \u00a0Congratulations young woman, I’m so proud of you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was a big day for over 2,500 graduates participating in the 2025 University of Hawaii at Manoa commencement. \u00a0Luckily I have a very dear friend that gave me VIP passes that allowed us to see everything from the front row. \u00a0We even got into the special room where the President, Board of Directors, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-137626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-kirbyblog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137633,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137626\/revisions\/137633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}