Insight - To the graduates!

Well, it’s graduation week. I’m not sure I ever thought it was going to get here. When our first child goes to kindergarten we sit at the bus stop and cry, then we follow the bus to school to make sure our little person with the backpack that is almost as big as they are is safe as she goes out on her own for the first time. 
 

After a few years, we attended the middle school parent’s night. “Your children will change and grow so much over the next three years.” They weren’t kidding. And God bless middle school teachers.

Time flies by, which people tell you will happen, but you never believe it, until high school.

“Where will your life take you? What is your plan?” they asked her. 

As a parent, my plan was to survive high school as…a…parent. 

Four years of drama, homework, tests and extra-curricular activities have created memories for my daughter, whose backpack now fits on her back, but now weighs more than she did in kindergarten because it’s filled with science, calculus and history textbooks and of course a book to carry for enjoyment if there’s a free moment.

The little annoyances that drove me nuts when she was in middle school, turn out to be great characteristics for an independent woman heading off on her own. 

I’m amazed at how many students have been in the Windham School system for 13 years with her. As we looked through the yearbook, I barely recognize the faces of kids she went to preschool with, but I remember the names. As someone who went to school in four different school systems the concept of never being able to recreate yourself or break free from the stigma of something you did in kindergarten is foreign to me. 

Well kids, now is your opportunity to get out of Dodge, spread your wings and experience life in a responsible and legal way (had to say that, I’m a mom). Don’t like who you’ve been, maybe you’ve been shy or in the shadow of an older sibling? Where you’re going, you won’t have that hanging over your head. Want to take up water polo? Join a team and have at it. 

Basically, I’m encouraging you all to live life to the fullest. Take no prisoners. Set the bar high. Use any cliché you want, but know that where ever you go, your community is watching and waiting to cheer you on.

-         Michelle Libby