Graduation

After months of tears (mine), Tori has indeed graduated! With a grandmother, godmother, uncle, aunt and cousin making the trip out to celebrate with us, it was all very fun and festive. The ceremony itself was mostly just a ceremony, with the class of over 300 kids marching in, getting their diplomas and marching out. Tori did get a couple awards which were only announced at graduation and that was exciting. She was easy to spot with her blonde hair. I was a bit teary when the band started to play pomp and circumstance but then again I also cried when Tori was playing pomp and circumstance in the band the previous year. I was mostly okay until the very end when I saw Tori getting a bit emotional. She looked beautiful and happy and a little sad that high school was actually over. She told me that she liked high school, she liked the classed, she liked the kids and she liked being good at it (high school).

It is such a momentous thing to finish high school but at the same time expected and never in doubt. But lots of time for reflection. I remember going to a meet the teacher the day before reception 2/kindergarten and worrying that Tori’s seat had “Victoria” on it instead of “Tori.” (The teacher changed it overnight). I remember Tori starting a new school a day or two after she got root canal, her little mouth, bruised and swollen and her completely oblivious to it. Fast forward to this summer and the extraction of wisdom teeth. Also bruised and swollen but much more aware of how she looked- sigh. I remember crying when we moved to Germany and Tori was in 5^th grade. There 5^th grade was middle school. At our old school, it wasn’t. And then the whole saga of Tori being placed in the English as a second language class!

There was been a lot of crying, mostly by me. And then seems to be how graduation/summer/college is trending as well. I remember when Tori was little, three or four, she used to tell me that she was going to college in the jungle. I said there was no jungle by us (this was Maryland at the time). She said that was the point. She was going two plane rides away. Well, she is going one plane ride away. But Southwest is stopping flights out of our local airport soon, so who really knows?!? Yes, I’ve been crying about the Boeing 737 mess. It has been one of those kind of summers.