It's already starting.

Within a year after graduating from high school, nearly 30 years ago, I was married.  Getting married was as liberating for me as for many graduates today.  I would go weeks doing my own thing and not going to visit my parents.  Or calling.  I look back now and regret having done that.  I didn't I intended to cut my parents from my life as much as I had.  But I did.  

Why am I thinking about this now?  Our new graduate is exercising his new wings.  He's spreading them out and making choices, even though they're not choices we want him to make.  Our first reaction is to take it personally.  

Through my conversation with my husband this evening, I remembered how I felt those years ago, and how I just wanted to make my own decisions.  How my choices were affecting my parents or my sister didn't matter to me back then.  I was just thinking about myself and what I wanted to do.  I eventually caught on and and began keeping in touch more with my parents.

I guess as the new adults have to transition to adult life, holding jobs, paying bills, and either going to the military or college, parents do too.  We need to get used to not having them around, not knowing where they're at, where they're going, and what time they'll be home.  It's not always an easy transition.  

As for our youngest?  He'll have to adjust to not having his brother around all the time.  He won't be able to count on him for rides to school in the fall, or to bring him to their mom's if he forgets something there.  I can relate to our oldest, but not to our youngest.  I'll have to pick my sister's brain about how she felt all those years ago when I moved out.

The Big Graduation Day and My Wish

What an emotional rollercoaster ride today was!  Our oldest is now graduated!

Have I said how much I love that kid?  

We live in a small community, so the group of 22 students were more than just classmates, but a family that have been together since Pre-K.  It was obvious to anyone watching that they were close.  

I teared up looking at all of them and thinking about how those cute little boys and girls have grown up into wonderful young men and women.

My Facebook newsfeed has also been filled with photos from the district that I taught middle school in.  It was great to see photos of their graduation too.  

So, being the sentimentally nostalgic person I'm known for, I have one wish for Kris and all the graduating classes of 2015, thanks to Rascal Flats.

Wrapping Up Another School Year

Well, we'll be wrapping up another school year in another 2 weeks.  This marks a milestone not only for me ending my first year teaching high school, but for our oldest, Kris.  He's graduating next Saturday...in 6 days. 

Kris at age 11

Where did our little boy go??

Kris at age 17

This morning we had the senior mass, and it was bittersweet seeing him in his cap and gown.  I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.

It's exciting to know that he's about to embark on a new life, making decisions that only he can make.  His future is an adventure now.  I wonder what direction his life will take and where he'll end up.

I think back to when I was graduating 28 years ago.  I remember how excited I was to be done high school, and get on with my life.  I didn't know what direction life would take me, but I'm here now.  Every step I took, every direction I went towards, led me to the man I'm married to, the children I'm a stepmom to, and working at the teaching career I now have.  I wouldn't change a thing.

I just hope that Kris can look back on his life in 10, 20, and 30 years from now and be happy with his choices in life and have no regrets.