The Graduation Boy

He did it.

He graduated from High School!

As his mother, I am extremely proud of him... and a little sad, too.

In fact, I wondered if that kid would ever make it through.

 

See, he has more of a laid-back personality than I do. I can’t count the times he had missing assignments, and I went into some kind of off-the-wall dissertation about the benefits of turning your work in early, or even on time, and he said, “Mom, I got this.”

I would roll my eyes and try to stop my heart palpitations... All I could think of was that if I would have done these things in high school, my parents couldn't have stood it! It was unheard of to not do your work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We wanted to graduate and go to college, moving on from the "childishness." Well, maybe that was just girls. I don't know because I have never been a high school boy. 

This begs the question: Do parents really need to know every single aspect of their kids’ grades and the progression throughout the semester? I don’t know the answer to the question…

 

My parents came and celebrated with us. And my dad was just beaming. He had some challenges in his early life that could have destroyed him, but he made it work for him. Today, he is very successful.

He and my mom gave Jonah a very thoughtful and unique gift. The really cool thing is we had an opportunity to sit down with them, just my parents, Jonah and me, and they presented his gift to him. Jonah actually got a little teary-eyed, which was surprising because of his even-keel personality.

They gave it to him again the next day in front of everyone else, and that was really special.

Last year, they found fuzzy robes on sale, and they bought one for all of our kids, Jim and Dad. They decided to make a group called “The Order of the Robes.” When Mom and Dad arrived at the house on graduation day, Dad was wearing his robe, and they had their first “meeting.” It was awesome!

 

My parents bought the balloons and the cake, and Jonah loved it!

We ate lunch before heading out to the graduation ceremony. And you know it's not a party until someone sits in hummus! Thank you, Caleb, for obliging.

I'm sure Jonah's girlfriend probably didn't even know what to think of all of us. But I think she had a good time!

Even though over 550 kids graduated in the ceremony, it didn’t really take that long. I sat there in a daze, mostly, trying to get a glimpse of the boy I gave birth to over 18 years ago… hoping that he saw his mother in the stands, smiling, screaming his name and clapping. Fortunately, my husband is a teacher at that school, so he got a good video for me to watch of Jonah walking across the stage.

 

So, the whole hullabaloo is over… Jonah is a high school graduate, and he is working at his first job. It’s only part-time right now, but you have to start somewhere.

I have a couple of years until the next boy graduates, and then a couple of years after that until the twins graduate.

Time is going by too fast! 

 

 

Seriously. But I sure am proud of my sons.

 

And grateful we are together.