Graduation Day

Well my daughter’s graduation has come and gone and here is the story.  We were nearly late but managed to get her to the arena (nearly 600 graduated in her class alone and 2 more local schools had their ceremonies right after hers).  I still object to paying $8 to park at my daughter’s graduation but it is what it is.  The stadium seating was packed along the sides and we ended up sitting pretty high.  As a result I could not tell which person was my daughter.  It was a sea of caps and gowns.  The family member with the camera kept pointing to her but I had no idea where she was pointing.  So I just played along.  It took a little bit to get to our letter of the alphabet as the students were seated alphabetically.  When my daughter’s row stood up, though, I spotted her right away.  She had a dress on under her gown but she was wearing her tennis shoes.  Everyone else had dress shoes on but not my daughter.  She even told the school, “I don’t care about the rule.  I’m not even wearing heels when I get married…Well, maybe I will then.  It depends how cool the shoes are.”  Now that’s my daughter!  I could see those shoes from way up in the stands.  Then there was her walk.  She didn’t walk tall and gracefully like a runway model.  She walked like her skateboard was under her arm.  While the girls in heels had to watch their step getting on and off the platform, my daughter hopped the steps like it was a rehearsal (which she slept through instead of going)  My daughter shook hands like she just met a new kid in the neighborhood and held up her diploma like Rocky with his belt.  After the ceremony we met up and the first question she asked was, “They can’t take this diploma back now, right?”  I assured her they couldn’t.  It was only then that I realized she graduated with honors.  So much for keeping track of the little things.  We went to dinner at a restaurant we frequented.  My wife’s side of the family was there and so was mine.  Everyone got along fine and then we went home for presents and cake.  When I brought out the printer and laptop for my daughter she started to cry because she was so happy.  She’s having an open house next month at my father-in law’s house.  As for the cake, my wife said we only needed a quarter sheet but I insisted we needed a half sheet in case her friends came over.  I put my foot down and just ordered it.  Well my daughter asked if she could have one of her girlfriends over for cake and I agreed.  That one girl brought 13 boys!  So much for my daughter saying she had no friends.  You would think that I would be alarmed by all the boys but they were all respectful.  That’s pretty rare these days.  They all went out for a while and that was the night.  So overall, it was a good day and I was so proud.