Graduation Smiles

Caroline Graham Swann

Hello darlings, graduation, as I am sure so many of you  have experienced, is a bittersweet  experience for parents, grandparents , siblings and all family members.

This landmark event tugs at one’s heart strings through the child’s life. Graduation from kindergarten to first grade makes one realize a serious step into childhood and coming to grips with the fact our child is no longer a baby,  “Where did our baby go so fast ?”  First tug and… then a smile.

Going to middle school from elementary is a source of great “growing up for our child”.  Once again, parents and family wonder where my little girl/boy went so fast.  Second tug and …and then a smile.

The next step is the one that brings the most change to our child’s life and, as all parents and family members know, certainly frantic and fun times for the whole experience of the teenager in full bloom.

HIGH SCHOOL! The years of learning to drive, date, school trips, being chosen for a certain team or rejected, part time jobs, proms, important exams, break up with first love trauma, dealing with the biology of hormones raging and the teen lacking the wisdom of consequences bring many heated debates and actually being a witness of the physical transition of our child becoming a young man/woman.

As I write this many memories come flooding back and, my darling readers, tears are in my eyes and I must get a tissue.

My children still tease me about how I sat in the parking lot and waited for them to get into their car when they had a part time job and were on the late closing list. At the time, it was embarrassing for their friends to see one’s Mom being such a watch dog!!!  But a lot of robberies take place at closing time and their pleas for me to stop fell on deaf ears.

Never will I forget the first time they took the car out alone and many times after, how I paced the floor and looked out of the windows until they returned home safely.  If they were late, my heart pounded with fear!   Remember those times??

Proms were fun, usually, unless the boy’s date had accepted two dates for the prom and the flower laden limo driven boys arrived at the same time.  Drama for sure!!!

The female hunt for  the most beautiful  prom dress was a truly bonding time – two fashionistas on the loose shopping, watching my daughter  try on dress after dress, until she said” yes to the dress.”

So much to remember about high school days, definitely a period of very happy times and very stressful times as parents and grandparents.

I have so often wished to bring back a certain age of my children, a certain day  or special event, just to hold them once again at that age  because  as parents and grandparent we realize how precious  and fleeting  are the moments of time for each stage of life.

Yesterday, my granddaughter, Cassie graduated form high school.  It was a day filled with tugs and smiles for the whole family.

My daughter had posted a photo of Cassie.  She was three or four years old, holding a fishing pole, her dark hair in curls and a big smile on her face cause it was the first time she had been fishing with her Daddy.  Now, her Daddy is an avid fisherman, very serious about the sport to say the least.

He was thoroughly surprised that his young daughter had caught more fish than he did that day!!  The whole family remembers that day so well, tiny little Cassie on her very first time fishing with her Dad, caught the most fish!

This was the beginning of our epiphany concerning Cassie’s spirit of determination to achieve her goals always with love and fairness.  Every time I think of that photo I feel tears swelling for how blessed our family is have her in our lives.

Cassie will soon be leaving for college and we are proud of her accomplishments. And so comes the third and worst tug, because one’s child is leaving home.  It is hard to turn your child out into the world and though they may be leaving home, they never leave your heart.  The truth is that the tugs and smiles continue on and one…college graduation, marriage, children, and then comes the wonderful world of grandchildren and the tugs and smiles get sweeter and sweeter. Congratulations to all of the graduates of 2013 and the families that love them!