Family History Writing Challenge - A First Paragraph Freewrite

Grace trapised across campus to the auditorium with her classmates. They walked purposefully, proudly, in single file, in alphabetical order; Grace with a B led the line of men in their robes, hoods of purple, and mortarboards.  Grace glanced at the sky, wishing her father was here; how proud he would have been. She lifted her arm in its unfamiliar garb, and wiped a tear away. She and Winafred lived so far from their home in Maine; and yet, Iowa was as much a home to them as Maine. Her mother's congratulatory letter sat on her dresser. Grace had read it so many times. Proud families watched the 1899 graduating class of Drake University School of Law file by. Winafred, sister, roommate and friend, gave Grace a smile and nod as she passed. Her classmates lauded her as she accepted her diploma. "What will life hold for me in a man's world?" she wondered.  Graduation and commencement. An ending and a beginning. She squelched her fear, knowing that Robert and Louisa Ballantyne's daughter could do anything she wanted to do.