MOSES LAKE — Sometimes things get compared to a perfect storm. Melinda Dourte called her graduation from Big Bend Community College “perfect sunshine.”

Dourte works in the BBCC administration office and kept working while going to school. She was encouraged by BBCC president Terry Leas, who told her she would be an example for other BBCC students.

The BBCC commencement ceremony was the completion of the first step. “It’s awesome. It’s like the perfect sunshine,” Dourte said. She plans to keep going, taking distance classes from Central Washington University, with the goal of a degree in communications or business.

Of course all graduates wore the traditional gown and mortarboard (that’s the cap) and it’s become fashionable to decorate the mortarboard with a little bit of the graduate’s personal story.

“First generation, sí se puede,” read one, and “Gracias, Mami & Papi,” read another. “I did it – I graduated,” read a third.

Maaike Mensonides added the symbol of the Rebel Alliance from the Star Wars to her cap. One of her guests at graduation said she was definitely a rebel. Mensonides defended herself. “But in Star Wars the Rebels are the good guys.”

The nursing program students went all out. Some read simply, “RN,” while others were more conversational. “Veni, vidi, vici,” Latin for "I came, I saw, I conquered,” was on one, while another said, “She turned her can'ts into cans and her dreams into plans.”

“Hurry call a nurse. Wait. . .that’s me,” read another. Mercy Munyao, originally from Kenya, added an outline of Africa to her mortarboard. “I’m going to be a nurse,” she said. Munyao lives in Seattle, heard about the nursing program at BBCC, and decided to apply. She’s going to continue her nursing education. “I’m excited about the new journey,” she said.

The father-and-son team of Frank and Daniel Corpus, Royal City, graduated together. “I am going to be a teacher,” Frank Corpus said. It won’t be his second career, or even his third, he said. “I’ve had so many.” He’s been attending BBCC, off and on, for a while, he said, and the next step is Central Washington University. Daniel Corpus will be going to CWU too; he’s working on a career as a family and consumer science teacher, he said.

Columbia Basin Herald publisher Eric LaFontaine talked about challenging oneself; “get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he said. The message resonated with Dourte, who was out of her comfort zone when she started college. “When I went in my first class I was scared to death,” she said. But she got through it, partly with the help of a “great math instructor, Barbara Whitney.”

It was just a matter of confronting the fear, she added. “We can’t be fearless, we’ve got to be courageous through the fear.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.