Graduation!

We actually had two Graduations happening in our household this month. I’ll firstly tell you about Beth’s. Bethy was feeling a little blue about the process of her finishing her apprenticeship this time last year. While we as a family celebrated her success of finishing, Bethy felt as though it was a little bit of a let down that there was no real celebration for her or any of the others who were finishing at the same time as she was finishing, but then we got this email in late October to say that on the 1st November, we (anyone who wanted to pay for a ticket) could go and celebrate finishing their apprenticeships at the Victoria Park Golf Club ballroom. It was a lovely evening in so many ways, and Bethy got the graduation she wanted. It’s so good to see our kids happy. I will have to come back and add some photos. The link is playing up at the moment.

Our third daughter graduated high school earlier this month after an incredibly crazy year for our family. In some ways I can’t believe we got though and made it to this point of the year. Especially after the year our family has had…but here we are….

WE GRADUATED!!!

This post is approximately a week and a half late considering our youngest daughter graduated high school on the 17th November. The last few weeks of school life came and went very quickly, and before we knew it, the big day – Formal Day had arrived!

I must say that the school our kids are enrolled in, really know how to celebrate the graduating class. They really honour each person in such a beautiful way. While it is all very exciting to actually get to the point of graduation, the end of school life is also very confronting for the graduate.

Watching Nell and her friends walk the red carpet together was an amazing experience in so many ways. All of a sudden they went from being kids in school uniforms to young adults in formal wear! I really hope they all stay in touch and keep the connections with each other close to their hearts. This cohort are a pretty special group.

On the Friday morning, the morning after the formal, we were all invited to the year 12 celebration breakfast and coffee with teachers and graduates. The school did a thanksgiving service for the whole school to send the year 12’s off into the world. Once the service finished, teachers and students from prep right through to year 11 formed a guard of honour for the graduating class to walk through. The guard of honour went from the doors of the church, right down to where the kindy class rooms are. The kindy kids took their place at the end of the line to give the year 12’s a little honour! It took a little while for the year 12’s to get down to the parents, I am pretty sure Nell hugged every person she had some form of contact with over the last two years.

The school photographer had the year 12’s do some final photos and let them go….Kings Beach was the destination for the Beach Run in. I am not sure when this tradition started, but they were ready to go at this point. They were the first class of year 12’s to get to the water which was really nice considering we have about seven schools in the area.

So here we are….on the other end of all the celebrations getting ready to start new celebrations…JJ finishes school today for the year, and we are a few weeks from Christmas.