2014. Master's in Ed. Leadership. Proudly walked on stage. Huge grin on my face when my son, daughter, mother and husband cheered. Tickets to graduation=4 per graduate. (Yes, that's one of my few selfies!) Rewind. 1978. High school graduation. Early admission to college. Freshman English courses counted towards both college and senior year of high school. Wanted to walk on stage. Told no by high school when I went back with my college transcript for credits. Asked if I could get a ticket to graduation to see all of my friends. Told no again. Luckily, one of my best friends from high school was only using 3 of her 4 allotted tickets. Huge grin on my face as I got to see my friends. Inside=crying! |
Graduations, whether high school, undergrad or graduate, are rites of passage from one stage of life to another. I wanted to share my graduations with as many people as possible.
1981. Undergrad graduation in Maryland. One of the last to be held outside. College attendance exploded shortly after. Tickets to graduation =unlimited. Just show up and sit down! One of my guests was from California. No worries about tickets. I invited so many people; the event was wonderful, as you can see from the huge smile on my face. The celebration continued with a party at my home. It was a day I will never forget. Definitely made up for my lack of graduation festivities 3 years prior! |
Now, let's fast forward to my daughter's college graduation (she's shaking hands in the middle of the photo above)! She actually finished her senior year coursework through online courses and had moved to Maryland. She decided to make the trip back to Florida to walk on stage. (I was quite happy; I do love graduations!) Number of graduation tickets = 4, the magic number it seems! What to do? She had 9 people who would really love to attend! In the end, seven of us attended, 3 from out of town. Were others disappointed, yes. Was it hard to get additional tickets? We went early, and stood in line. Was there a chance that we couldn't get tickets? Yes. The other 3 people were on stand-by!
There are graduation parties, large and small, but nothing takes the place of seeing a graduation. I'll always remember the day some of my best friends from college graduated from medical school. I now live in the Netherlands, far from my children, but I'd hop on a plane in a heartbeat to attend a graduation! (My daughter's getting ready to apply to graduate school!) It's not that simple for many. Miles/kilometers separate many families, and with extended families, limited numbers of tickets makes it difficult to decide who attends. If you aren't invited, or can't make it to a graduation this year, hope that someone takes a video! I leave you with this wonderful video that was in my Facebook feed this week, and the inspiration for this Celebration Saturday. I started my teaching career as a high school science teacher, and also taught dance, so I just loved watching it. Enjoy! Hawaii's Kahuku High and Intermediate School's Class of 2015! |
What is your favorite graduation memory?
Tell me in a comment below!
Tell me in a comment below!