Andrew Christie, the oldest child of Gov. Chris Christie, is graduating from Princeton University.
PRINCETON -- When 53-year-old Chris Christie looks in the mirror every morning, he tries to convince himself that he's not old, he said recently.
On one hand, the governor has lost weight, which makes him feel younger, he said. On the other hand, he's finding gray hair, which makes him feel older.
Today, that back and forth ends once and for all, Christie said. After a weekend of events at Princeton University, the governor will sit on the lawn of Nassau Hall this morning and watch his eldest child, Andrew, graduate from the university.
"Once your first child is graduating from college there's really no debate," Christie said Thursday. "You are now old."
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Andrew Christie, the eldest of the family's four children, is a National Merit Scholar who played catcher for Princeton's baseball team. He interned with the New York Mets last summer.
"My oldest child thankfully said the greatest words to me four weeks ago that any parent of a graduating senior can hear: 'I've got a job,'" Christie said. "He then, a week later, gave me the second best sentence you can hear: 'I've got an apartment.'"
The governor's office has not said where Andrew Christie will work, but the elder Christie and his wife, First Lady Mary Pat Christie, are relieved to know that their son's future is set, the governor said.
"Mary Pat and I were like, one down, three to go," Chris Christie said.
Speaking in front of hundreds of New Jersey charter school teachers and administrators last week, the governor reminisced about his son's first day of kindergarten.
The night before, when Andrew Christie was fast asleep, his father slipped into his room and started to cry, Chris Christie said. The elder Christie prayed that whatever happened next would be the best for his son, he said.
"Those years have been kind to me and to Mary Pat and to Andrew," the governor said. "He went to really good schools, he got a great education and now he is graduating from on of the great universities in the world."
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