A Different Kind of Graduation

This past dance season was M1's final year at her dance studio. In addition to graduating from high school she "graduated" from the dance studio.  A variety of factors came together to make her graduating year extra special.

First, there were nine girls graduating.  It's more fun to have a larger group for celebrations.  Last year there were 4 graduates, which is a good number, but COVID got in the way.  The year before that, there were two graduates.  These two were duet partners for a few years but in their final year, they got into an argument so that made things kind of awkward.  The year before that there was only one dancer graduating and before that my girls were probably too young to be invited so I don't know what kind of parties there were.

Second, these nine girls truly enjoy being with each other.  I think all of them have been with the studio for over 10 years.  M1 and 3 other girls have been in the same group since they were 9 years-old.  She's had the same duet partner since 2016.  Over the years, they've formed really strong friendships.  So as they danced this year, they realized that this would be the last time they would compete together on stage as a team.  There was so much emotion.  The girls cried as they danced on stage.  The parents cried in the audience.  Dance judges acknowledged the graduating dancers and noted it was clear that these girls had been dancing together for a long time.

Third, COVID.  Of course, COVID is part of everything these days.  Because of COVID, this was the first time competing in person since 2019.  Counting the non-graduating dancers, there were 19 girls on the team (M2 included).  Having missed two years of competition, these girls took nothing for granted.  They cherished their time together - not just dancing, but hanging out together afterwards.  They went for dinners, ice cream, Starbucks, Go-karting.  And they made it a point to celebrate the graduates.  There were so many parties - in hotel rooms with parents, cake from the studio owners, slide shows with pictures of the girls showing how they grew up in the studio over the years.  They even had a mini-prom in the studio for dancers who got sick and missed their actual high school prom.  There were lots of gifts too, including a framed team photo for each graduate, signed by all their teammates.  M2 put together a yearbook for each of the graduates, which she will distribute at yet another sleepover party next week.

This culminating experience, with so many great memories, has truly made all the time and money invested in dance over the years worthwhile for my girls.

Big Oh

Grand Finale

Last Friday was Canada Day and it's been a few years since July 1st fell on a weekend - or on a day when I didn't have to work the next day.  I thought I would take the girls to see fireworks at Canada's Wonderland.  (Don't worry - we have a season's pass.)  I also thought about buying fireworks and setting them off at a local park.  It's been a while since we did that and M3 does not remember the last time so I especially wanted to do it for her.  But there was a thunderstorm warning and we did neither.

When nightfall came, there were no thunderstorms, not even a tiny raindrop.  So we drove to a park nearby and watched other families set off their fireworks from our car.  There were lots of neighbourhood spectators like us.

This reminded us of the many firework exhibitions we've seen over the years - from simple ones that I purchased to semi-professional ones at a local park to Blue Mountain, Niagara Falls, Disneyworld, and Ottawa.  As you know, the fireworks start off simple and get more spectacular as the show goes on.  Then the final one would have lots of colourful explosions in quick succession.  As each blast got more intense, YC would always say, "That was the grand finale."  But then there would be another one following that was even more spectacular.  Then she would say, "Okay, THAT was the grand finale."  The girls would laugh at Mommy as this continued a few more times before it was the actual finale.

So this time when we watched the fireworks and any time there were loud explosions with lots of colours, we would say, "That was the grand finale."

Big Oh