We now have a rising 10th grader! Sarah is all done with school! Somehow I had no cognitive dissonance when I knew her graduation activities were on Friday June 2, but that her school calendar went through June 6. I assumed she would have the graduation activities and then finish out school on Monday and Tuesday. Ah, but no. She is all done with 8th grade and all done with going to St. Therese, where she was for the past 7 years. She is all done with having the most reliable bus driver in the world who arrived promptly every day at the same time – to the minute!
Friday at 12:30 there was a slide show at the school for graduates. Part-way through, Sarah was done. She was low-level whining and yelling about wanting to be done. But we wanted to make it through to see her slides. Being a W last name meant a long wait in a class of 38 kids. We also knew that after the slide show all of the graduates would walk through the building one last time before meeting the parents outside. Carl, Sarah’s teacher, the principal, Sonia, and I all worked to help Sarah regain her equilibrium and somehow Sarah managed. She was in a calm-enough state when her pictures were on the big screen and there was a cheer from her classmates. It was nice to have them see her at a swim lesson and in a piano recital to know what she does outside of her school time.
When the graduates emerged from their school walk-through they release balloons and Sarah was delighted to see them all fly away. Then we drove home and Sarah napped for two hours before she and I argued about what she would wear for her graduation Mass. She insisted on wearing cut-off shorts. I insisted that almost anything else would be ok, but not those. Eventually she opted for her uniform shorts and a black and green/yellow musical note blouse. And Goodnight Moon socks of course!
The Mass went well. Sarah’s teacher sat in the pew with us to help Sarah stay at ease and that all went smoothly for the Mass plus award ceremony, which together lasted for almost two hours. When it was her turn, Sarah walked up to the front of the church by herself to receive her diploma. When she won awards for participating in the school musical and being a school helper delivering supplies to teachers, she stood with her fellow award-winners to receive applause. When it was all over the graduates stood up from their families and walked together to the back of the church. Sarah had a moment of being distracted and slowing her pace. Her Resource Room classmate whom she has been with for the past 7 years put his arm around her to get her walking with everyone. It was so sweet!
There was a dinner for everyone in the cafeteria and then we headed to the gym for some tiger cheers. Amy did cartwheels and lots of cheering. She also had some feelings when we got home. It’s been quite a span of weeks with lots of moments celebrating Sarah and attending her events. That can be hard for a sibling who hasn’t reached those milestones yet and whose school doesn’t do musicals. I was impressed that Amy could verbalize the feelings and we had some nice snuggles.
The other highlight of the week was when Amy spotted baby bunnies in our backyard!! We have had two bunnies back there almost all spring and have come to think of them as our pets that we don’t have to take care of but get to see often. One night at dinner Amy realized there were baby bunnies with the mom. We watched them nurse! We were seriously beside ourselves and imploding from the cuteness. They were so little! And also so dirt-colored. If you didn’t see the movement you could barely see them. Now of course the bar has been raised so I am no longer satisfied just seeing the grown-up bunnies. I want more baby bunnies!
Leave a Reply