Graduation #2

This past Wednesday was M2's Grade 8 graduation ceremony.  I was very happy and proud.  But as I am finding these days, moments like this are immediately followed by sadness and empty feelings.  Two years ago, M1 had her Grade 8 graduation and my beautiful wife wrote a blog, titled "Graduation #1."  She didn't describe the events of the ceremony.  She was just happy and relieved to have been able to be there.  She asked me how many graduations she would make it to.  I wished she would make it to all of them.

M2's ceremony was supposed to be in June but because we were in lockdown, the school wanted to wait until September to see if there was a chance to do this in person.  So do we buy a dress or not?  Well, M2 was selected to be valedictorian (just like M1), so I felt we should buy a dress.  Some of YC's lady friends took M2 shopping for a dress.  This was difficult for her because she wanted to do this with Mommy.  Although M2 was very grateful for her aunties helping her, she was sad.  I was sad too because I couldn't do more to help her.  I told her, "You see Daddy's clothes, right?  There's no way I can help you find a decent dress."  But after she got a dress, she was very happy because she looked good in it.  She wore it around the house for several days.

Well, September came and went and it was decided that the graduation ceremony would be done virtually in November.  M2 was to send in a video of herself giving the valedictorian speech.  She put on her dress for that and she said it was nice because it's not as nerve-wracking when it's not in front of an audience.  And if she messes up, she can start over.  She did an amazing job - spoke confidently and clearly.

On November 18, we were all excited to watch the ceremony.  But there were technical difficulties and it was postponed to December 2.  (I can't understand why it took two weeks to fix some pre-recorded video - I assume they had the video ready on November 18.)  So this past Wednesday, the link came out at 9:30 AM.  The girls were doing on-line schooling and I was in a meeting.  M2 wanted to watch but I asked her to wait until 10:00 when my meeting would be over.  So we all gathered to watch at 10:00, except for M3 who was writing a Math test and couldn't join us until 10:30.

Overall I thought it was a nice video.  There were lots of pictures and video clips of the students throughout their 10 years at this school.  I had a lot of emotions - happy, excited, proud, sad.  For occasions like this we always put YC's picture with us so we can watch together.  But as always, I think to myself, "I wish you were beside me so we can see this together."

Big Oh