The third niece graduated from Sachse HS last night;she's the one who has an athletic scholarship in soccer (hence the photo) ... The ceremony was familiar, yet different, from the ones that I ran for RHS and worked for SHS in DISD. Shoot, even the program -- and the paper the program was printed on -- had a familar format. The one time that a principal of mine tried to deviate from that formula, he was informed by our asst. superintendent that she didn't like it and that we must return to the old tried-and-true format. This was definitely the "family thing" that threatened to make me revert to a sulky teenager, since every personal plan was put on hold ... My mom wanted to make sure we got there in time, so we arrived an hour before we were supposed to go to supper with the family ... Then they delayed another hour because my nephew (poor guy) was laid low by a virus and couldn't come ...
Many cultures mark the official end of adolescence. My Latina girls have their "15" or Quinceneras; there used to be "Sweet 16" parties. I swear some guys mark it by siring a child; since so many don't stick around to raise the resulting child, I can't say that they're a "father," even if they claim to be the "baby daddy." Still, most kids suffer through the graduation ceremony -- and it does mark the end of 13 years of education. Who knows? Some may have learned something about life ... or will realize that we tried to teach them something about life later on. A high school diploma is the first important piece of paper on the way to a career ... and some career paths don't recognize a GED since it generally shows that you didn't finish the standard HS curriculum.
So long, and Godspeed, Classes of 2011 ... as Mom reminded me last night, school is over (ar least until August). Time to move on.
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