Stand In

Inspirational song: Walk of Life (Dire Straits)

When Mr S-P joined the military and we moved away from Colorado, away from our friends and family for 20 years, our oldest niece was at most a very young teenager and our youngest nephew had not even been born. We missed out on a lot of aunt and uncle type activities, and we missed every single high school graduation of that generation except for the ones our own daughters were in. Every one until now, that is. Today was the graduation ceremony for the youngest nephew, and it was being held on the CU campus, which was big enough to hold hundreds of graduates and thousands of spectators. We decided that we had the flexibility in our schedules to attend, and use this nephew as a stand-in, the representative for all of his cousins, whose graduations we couldn't attend. (I won't even get into how many weddings we've missed...)

It was a little odd, showing up as we did right as the processional was beginning. We were heading toward the more vacant sections of the arena, so that we could find good seats away from the thickest crowd. We ended up standing ten feet away from the kids as they entered on the north side of the events center, and didn't even realize our nephew had walked past us until he was already most of the way down the stairs. We were a little overwhelmed by an endless line of young people in navy blue caps and gowns, and they all sort of blurred together a little bit. We didn't know any of them except our nephew, and we didn't know any of the teachers who were lining the stairs as the seniors walked past. We hadn't even warned our sister (in-law for me) that we were coming, so we were on our own. Eventually, texts got through and we figured out where everyone was, and we settled back to watch the ceremony.

There were more national clubs/societies than I remembered from my high school years. I would have loved to have gotten into the national art society or the nation French society. (As it was, I had to argue successfully with my guidance counselor that getting two Bs my junior year when I missed a month of school for mononucleosis shouldn't knock me out of national honor society when I'd been in it for years. But that's an old wound that has scarred over enough that it doesn't keep me up at night.)

The four kids who gave speeches handled themselves very well. You could see a little of that teenage uncertainty and shyness in their faces, but they were well-spoken and their classmates appreciated them. The faculty speaker amused Mr S-P and I. He referenced another graduation speech he had heard, wherein the speaker rolled out a long strip of toilet paper, 78 squares in length. The speaker explained that the squares each represented one year of a person's life, based on average life expectancy. Eighteen squares were colored in, to show the graduates where they were on that timeline, and four of the squares were red, representing their high school years that were just ending. As he waxed poetic, trying to inspire the graduates about what they should do with the remaining 60 squares/years, Mr S-P leaned over to me and whispered, "And you should hope that no one takes up any of your squares to wipe his ass with them." Not sure all the assembly would have appreciated that particular wisdom, but I found it poignant and inspiring. And funny.