Graduations (Raquel)
May 28, 2005 by Raquel
I went to a graduation last night. (Yes, it was the same one Gabrielle went to.) Being in that sort of mood, or maybe just being really tired, I cried. It was a homeschool co-op graduation; each set of parents gave a amusing, heartwarming or inspirational speech while presenting their child with the diploma. It wasn’t even smarmy, it was very nicely done.
As I sat watching and digging through my backpack for a tissue the thought wandered through my head, “I didn’t have this.” It wasn’t a complaint, more of an observation. On further contemplation I realized I was glad that my ‘graduation’ wasn’t like this. This was lovely and seemed to suit those graduating, but it just would have felt silly stuck into the middle of my life. We always changed my ‘grade’ (though we didn’t follow grades strictly) on my birthday, so my official graduation day was my eighteenth birthday. My schoolwork tapered off a couple days early to clean the house for James and Theresa’s visit. You could say my last two days of high school where spent on Home Ec. 
The plan was that two days after my birthday I would come back to IL with James and Theresa. The day before we were supposed to leave we packed a lunch, and got ready to go. Then we found out there was an ice storm coming. To stay ahead of it we had to leave early and travel through the night. By morning everyone was exhausted and we ate bologna sandwiches for breakfast because that was what we’d packed. Thus was my graduation.
Funny and different and hard on the stomach, it fits my life perfectly. I wouldn’t change a thing.