Graduation Day

Graduation was today, and it was one of the nicest I've seen in a while. Graduations at my school tend to be a little relaxed. The students and staff still dress up, but some of the families either come dressed up or dressed casually. Depending on the student, the family may or may not make a big deal out graduating from elementary school.

It was really nice to see the kids so excited and happy to graduate. Some of them cried at the end, but that's to be expected. They played their bell chimes one last time, and they celebrated their last Mass together. Some of them were really excited and beaming to receive their diplomas, and others played it cool.

It was a little sad to see them leave and graduate, but it's also exciting for them. It will be interesting to see how these big fish in a very small pond handle being smallish fish in some very large oceans. Some of them are attending small Catholic high schools, but most are going to high schools like Curie and Whitney Young, which are basically small cities.

Naturally, they'll come back in the fall and they'll come visit, proud of who they are and confident that high school will be a snap. Then they'll start to lose touch and they won't want to come visit us so often. Suddenly high school and driving and their friends will take precedence, and elementary school will be an afterthought. It's pretty natural. I don't miss elementary school and I certainly dont' visit (then again, my school is closed and I was so excited to graduate that I could barely sit still during my last week of school).

It will be interesting to see how the next few weeks go. I'm sure I'll get random friend requests on facebook and myspace from some students, but most of them are well on their ways to forgetting me and some other teachers already. :-) I'm certain some will show up for the first day or two of camp "to say hi" and there's always one or two kids who show up in August.

Graduations are always a good time to really see how people feel about their schools and one another, that's for sure. There are the kids who run on out of there and there are the kids who linger and stick around for "just one more photo". If nothing else, it's good to see that those things never change, despite those things that have a tendency to never remain the same.