Graduation Daze

Posted by: on Jun 15, 2010 | 3 Comments

Graduation Daze

On Monday, my son will graduate from high school, and his Ferris Bueller-esque existence of the last few months of HS will come to an end.  By my count, this will be his 4th graduation ceremony, although they haven’t been always called “graduation.” There was a ceremony for his last day in pre-school, elementary and middle school. There was moving on, moving up, moving off, moving over, moving to ruin my day ceremonies for each of these “momentous” occasions.  And at each one of those moments, there was some way-to-eager-to-please PTA mom there to make speech as if she was reciting the State of the Union or the Gettysburg Address.

Good grief, give me a friggin’ break. I have had 2 graduation ceremonies:  Great Neck North and Syracuse University. I would like to know who the brain surgeon was from Hallmark or FTD or Pomp & Circumstance Inc. that determined that a 5 year old needed a ceremony when he finished his Pre-K education. Holy shit…what a waste of time, money and energy.

Speaking of a waste of time, money and energy, let’s take a minute to look at senior year in HS in the 21st century. Yes, for some kids, senior year is much like every other year in high school filled with last minute AP tests, striving to achieve all their goals, yada yada yada. However, for many others in the waning moments of their high school existence, there are no tests, no quizzes, no projects, no homework. There’s pool parties, house parties, trips to the beach, trips to Great Adventure, days in NYC and so forth. The big decision is whether to drink from the red cups or try to fool everyone by switching to the blue cups. Cheap light beer is replaced by kegs (gotta love those pictures on facebook) and other types of beverages.

All that’s left for Linda and me is to survive the next 6 or 7 days: The prom, the post prom, the weekend after the prom, graduation, the night after graduation, the inevitable long good byes as my son and his friends realize that their HS daze are behind them.

So to my son and all his MHS friends, congratulations on finishing high school. The college daze are right in front and I won’t really care what color cups you are drinking out of.

3 Comments

  1. Joe
    June 15, 2010

    And they friggin do them in the middle of the day like we don’t work. Let’s see- the teachers are getting paid to sit thru a ridiculous graduation ceremony which either shouldn’t be held or should be held at night….i think you are onto something.

  2. Cliff Feldman
    June 15, 2010

    Congratulations to your son, Ira. My son graduates middle school tomorrow. We didn’t even HAVE middle school back in the day!

    • Sharon Rimland
      June 17, 2010

      Love the reference to the cups, Ira. Katie has been at the beach since her prom Tuesday night. Do you want her cell # to find out what color cups they have??? Allan asked her what was “on tap” for the evening! She texted back, “LOL”.