Moving On

This was an exciting, and kind of sad, week for my family.  Thursday evening my daughter graduated from middle school, and Friday night my son graduated from preschool.  In the fall, my daughter will start high school.  There is only one more graduation for her before she is off to college.  My little one will go to kindergarten in September, riding the bus for the first time to public school.  He is no longer a baby. 

The two graduation ceremonies were very different.  Middle schoolers are very serious.  Well, they are very seriously bored with graduation ceremonies.  The ceremony was a series of speeches by school administration and the class' overachievers.  My daughter didn't give a speech, because there wasn't a category for her greatest achievement, which was learning enough French to be able to shop for clothes in a mall in Montreal.  The only  part of the ceremony which I found moving was the performance by the chorus.  They sang Five for Fighting's song "100 Years".  As soon as they sang "Fifteen, there's still time for you..." I was crying.

The middle schoolers fidited quietly in their seats during the ceremony, then got up and filed out of the gym through a receiving line of teachers.  They  didn't smile or joke around.  They are too concerned about what someone else might think, and they don't want to mess up their hair.  It's sad to see all those personalities hidden under masks of conformity.  My prayer for each of them is that their individual lights find a way to shine again before long.

The pre-kindergarten graduation was different.  The preschool borrowed the theater at a local college, which meant we sat in cushioned seats instead of bleachers, which for me was the biggest improvement over the night before.  The kids took the stage and performed a series of songs and stories that they've been practicing for weeks, and did it flawlessly.  Even the little girl who cried from the moment she stepped on the stage until the moment she left managed to get through her lines.  Then the kids donned caps and gowns and, one at a time, made their way across the stage to receive their diplomas, shake hands with their teachers, and give the school's owner a high-five.  After they received their diploma, they lined up along the back of the stage.  That's when the fun started.

My son doesn't stand still, ever, so while the other kids stood and held their diplomas, my little angel was playing with his cap, using rolled diploma as a megaphone to yell in the ear of the kid next to him, and using the slippery satin gown as a sit-and-spin.  As the remainder of the kids received their diplomas, my husband and I were watching our son and laughing so hard that my sides ached and tears were running down my face.  The teacher monitoring the action at the back of the stage put his cap back on three times, and finally took it away.  My prayers last night went out to the poor kindergarten teacher who has to deal with him.  I hope she gets plenty of rest this summer.