Our third high school graduate

I feel like my mother. She had four children in quick succession, and I, being the oldest, graduated from high school and three others followed soon after. My mom went from having six kids at home to just two in a matter of a few years.

That is my life today.

As of last night we have three high school graduates. Time surely does fly on wings of lightning. It was just yesterday that my kids were all babes, and now the oldest is getting ready to be a mom herself.

This graduation certainly was anything but typical. Nobody anticipated or expected a graduation quite like this. As the quarantine slowly dragged on through March and then April, our hopes of a "normal" graduation soon faded. Expecting life to always turn out the way you want is guaranteed to lead to disappointment because life will not always turn out the way you want it to. This meme pretty much sums up the whole of humanity at the moment.



Nate has had his up and down moments during the quarantine. It's been difficult as reality slowly set in that he would not be experiencing those "typical" end-of-school senior events. And my heart has broken for him and every other senior who had their dreams ripped out from under them. Coach Bob and Robyn came by to deliver senior tennis paraphernalia for a season that ended as quickly as it began.

Last week they handed out caps and gowns. Honors students typically wear a silver gown to distinguish them. Those would not arrive in time due to factory shut downs. Instead all graduates wore a black gown with either a black cap or gray cap for honors students. We did a little photo shoot around the house.

 

Monday night the high school held a graduation "walk." A time slot was assigned to each group of graduates, and when we arrived, we found we had to wait in our car for about 20 minutes. Each graduate was allowed up to four people, so Alex and Ash got to accompany us, masks in hand for everyone.

After that we were escorted into the school where we maintained social distancing as we made our way down the hall. Along the way they had various photo booths.

Upon entering the auditorium, Nate went one way and we went another. He was handed his diploma cover, stood on stage while we clicked away and cheered, and then we were escorted out. 

This was streamed live to Facebook so Erik got to watch from afar and snapped a screenshot for us.


Tuesday night there were fireworks and then Wednesday was the prerecorded graduation ceremony streamed to different platforms which we got to watch from the comfort of home.

It was all a little strange. At one point the camera panned the audience . . . of no one.

There were the typical speeches and in between they showed each graduate's photo.

I was impressed with the musical number that they were able to arrange from various places.

And with that, it has come to an end. Nate is off to great things. One day he'll look back on this whole experience and will see that is was nothing more than a little bump in the road. This graduation may have been different, but I thought the school did a fabulous job making it as special as they could while at the same time doing their best to follow health guidelines and keep people safe. We were able to celebrate with Nate a little more intimately rather than him just being part of the masses.

I sure do love this middle child of mine.


To view his graduation video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13PCTP5znBi8UYfQ1_Je9_AfqVFioNgy7/view?usp=sharing