I'm still not over it and I still don't have my head wrapped around it...
Our fourth and final child graduated high school last night. It was an epic ceremony with 51 graduates - a lot of senior tears, parent/family tears, and staff tears. Small school graduations are the best. I love that 90% of the kids stopped to hug the front office lady. I looked for her to hug her, too, after the ceremony. I felt like we became super good friends over the past few years and I'll miss talking to her! Each student paused to get their picture taken with their awesome principal (also the awesome principal is not about hugs and got more hugs than he could probably handle ever. We know this, because it is a small school and you learn these things). Epic. Every time one of the students insisted on hugging him, you could feel the collective cringe and "awe" from the audience. Also, the guy yelling "that's my sister" from the audience was awesome.
There were eight senior speeches and they were all awesome. There was school music. Special recognition for staff and seniors. Scholarships given. And a video of senior thoughts... It was amazing. I had tears. Tears of joy and nostalgia.
We met up with K4 in the lobby after the ceremony. That Man was much faster than me in getting out of the auditorium. By the time I got there she and her dad were hugging and both of them were crying. I had to wait for student after student to hug her and then her cousin and brother, and then it was my turn. She cried on me too, or more like, I cried on her. She looked so beautiful and she was so happy. She took off to hug and cry on her friends and we went to the parking area to find we had a stupid parking ticket. (damnit!)
Then off to dinner, which was awesome, but took forever. (Second time at this place recently with mediocre service - food was better this time, and while the server was super attentive at the beginning, we didn't see her much after our meals came until it was time for the checks to be paid... hmmm. I highly doubt we'll be back there again anytime soon) We didn't get home until well past our normal bedtime. And then, of course, I couldn't sleep. Too much caffeine, too much in my head, too many memories - or whatever, but it was well into the early morning hours until I finally found some sleep.
And then up for work this morning. I should have taken the day off. In retrospect, I definitely should have taken the day off. But I did it and that's okay.
Anyway. I do have Feel Good Friday, too...
1. Above. Duh.
2. Sleeping in a bit tomorrow.
3. Living through the past twelve years with this great kid and being able to smile about it. (Trust me it was a journey that I am glad to have survived. From day one of kindergarten, we have struggled. Seriously. Some days were awesome and some days were horrific.) Yeah, it's going to take me a little bit to wrap my head around this school thing being done forever.
4. Friends from far away coming to see us this weekend. I'm so excited! It's been three years since we've seen them and we miss them so much!
5. Getting some writing in this week. I had a good few days. Then I got some stupid headache/stomach thing and lost a day. And then another day for graduation. But I am making progress. And I still have the headache.
6. Driving home with the top down on the Jeep and being able to park it undercover in my awesome shelter in case in rains tonight. There is nothing like the feeling of top down! You don't believe me, but it's absolutely true. It can take the worst day and make you feel pretty damned good.
7. Summer plans. We are traveling a bit this summer and we're so excited!
8. That Man and K4 taking care of dinner tonight. All I had to do was stop at the store for a few ingredients. Nice.
9. Household administration duties done for the week. And the f'ing parking ticket paid.
10. Looking forward to the weekend. And sleeping in. And getting writing time in. Yeah, that's repetitive, but I had to get to 10 in the extremely long post! Ha!
Behave!
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