I’m crying as I read this. Of course…it is 5 a.m. and I’ve been up since 3 a.m. but BITTERSWEET never has been defined for me as completely as when the children have graduated and then moved from home….Sweet but Sad at the same time.
Well done!
THE CEREMONY – DAY 130 of P365
- By : Cynthia
- Category : Kids - Amanda
Kids - Amanda
4
It’s official. Amanda has her diploma in hand now! We had a lovely ceremony with our co-op friends. The first part of the evening was spent acknowledging all of the co-op kids, teachers, etc. That took about 1/2 an hour.
Amanda and the other graduate weren’t part of co-op in that they didn’t attend co-op, but we considered all the families to be part of the co-op “family” and included the two seniors in the end of the year ceremony. The graduation part of the ceremony began with Pomp & Circumstance. Both kids walked in and then turned to face the audience. After they were introduced by name, they came to sit in the front row with their parents.
We were so blessed to have one of the dads in our co-op lead this part of the ceremony. He started with a very nice introduction of each of the kids telling which was followed by a photo video of each of the graduates from birth to graduation. The boy that graduated with Amanda made the video and did a great job! After that came the graduation speech and then the diploma ceremony.
During this part of the ceremony, our speaker called Tim & I forward with the diploma. After we were up on the stage, he called for Amanda to come forward to receive her diploma. In the first picture above you can see Tim handing Amanda her diploma. Below, I’m moving her tassel over!
Then… hugging and a couple very brief words of congratulations to Amanda. I knew I wouldn’t be able to say much without tearing up so this part was short and sweet!
I was able to maintain until after we were done hugging and then it really hit me that this was IT! It was over. We’ve spent the last 13 years (including kindergarten) preparing her for this day and now it’s here and gone. I couldn’t help but shed a few happy/sad tears!
Watching her walk across the stage and back to her seat was such a bittersweet moment. We are SO PROUD of her yet so sad to see this phase of our life with her closing. I know this picture is blurry, but it’s the only one I have so I’m going to post it anyway.
After she walked back to her seat then we rejoined her there and watched as the other graduate went forward to receive his diploma. After he and his parents were back in their seats then our guest speaker had everyone extend their hands toward the graduates as he prayed a prayer of blessing over them. The ceremony concluded with my brother singing Find Your Wings while a slide show featuring this year’s co-op activities was shown.
The ceremony was just right! When we started this year we didn’t know WHAT we were going to do. Amanda didn’t want to have a private ceremony here at home nor did she want to be part of the larger county-wide co-op graduation since she didn’t know many of those kids. This ceremony was a very nice fit for our family and the other family reports that it was exactly what they hoped for as well.
