I’m in Portland, Oregon, holed up in a hotel suite with my sister and my mother. Tomorrow my son graduates with honors from Lewis & Clark College.

I can’t begin to tell you what it was like to see him to today, how my heart sang whenever I caught sight of his face, which is tanned and beautiful.

I won’t post a picture of him because I don’t think he’d want that, but I will say that he is the most amazing young man, strong and sensitive, funny and smart and so insightful it takes my breath away.

Portland is lush and green and lovely. It’s snowing back in Anchorage but here, it’s as if I’ve been transported to another world.