Class of 2007, Before & Beyond

Last weekend, I attended a lovely graduation party. I know that this is an odd time for graduating from high school, but this particular school, has the graduation in February and for the rest of the school year takes the seniors on a memorable trip to teach more of the world that no book is able to teach.

Last year I went through the whole process with my 4teen as a parent, but somehow this year’s experience had a very special meaning than the emotional one of the previous year. This year something clicked within me that was not obvious to me last year. I think that last Saturday, I grew a bit wiser! I hope.

Where I come from, graduation parties were thrown only if someone was getting a bachelors or a higher degree. Graduation parties from high school were unheard of and graduation parties from kindergarten, elementary school and middle school would have raised a few eyebrows here and there.

When I moved here you can only imagine my mixed feelings when we celebrated the graduation of my 4teens from kindergarten through high school high school and every step of the way. I felt very proud, yet found this whole ordeal very bizarre and unwarranted. In short I was supposed to feel No big deal, yet it was a big deal, this was my child!

Yesterday as I looked at these young people so proud and so eager to invade and save the world from all the bad things , for the first time, I started remembering all those 4teens and younger who did and will not graduate because they are either ill, deceased or other. Yesterday, for the first time, I felt for the parents that are not privileged enough to see even a kindergarten graduation of a single child. And it was then that all came together to me. We celebrate every graduation of every child, because we have accomplished a difficult milestone in raising our children. We thank God for this day, because our children are healthy despite the crazy world of guns, bombs, knives, peer pressure and many more, that can happen in their own back yard, and not in Iraq, Sudan or wherever, on a daily basis. We applaud ourselves for doing the best that we can to bring them to this day, not only for our sake, but for the society’s sake as well.

Sincere congratulations to all the graduates of past, present and future, and of course their families too.