I’ve been through four major graduations myself (high school, bachelor's degree, master’s degree and law degree), I’ve been to lots of other graduations (Michelle’s Bachelor’s degree, Brenton’s, Jameson’s, Jessica's and Rebecca’s high school at least and probably a few others). I’ve even missed some graduations (Brenton’s Jameson’s and Jessica’s Bachelor’s degree). Each one was amazing. Each one a time to celebrate and congratulate.
After last night, we had a great time celebrating and congratulating Rebecca, our newest graduate. Her graduating class was 85 people. Because of the small class size, they were able to take more effort to recognize each of the graduating students. But I’m getting head of myself. Here’s the evening from the start.
As we walked onto the school grounds, they had two elephants to greet everyone. The riders threw flower petals on people’s heads as they passed. This elephant is named Morning.
You then passed through a tunnel decorated with lots of small lights.
A ‘band’ was playing. There was this guy on the water bowels. Played with chop sticks btw.
This guy on the dulcimer.
And these guys playing the drums and what looked like toys.
They’ll probably never make the top 40, but it provided an appropriate backdrop to the evening.
You couldn’t even recognize the gym as they really know how to decorate it up. You’ll see flowers everywhere, lining the walls and dropping from the ceiling. They smelled amazing. The graduates came in and stood in the back.
While they were there, they had a short slide show with two pictures of every graduate and their selected quote. The top people quoted seemed to be Michael Jordan, Dr. Suess and Ghandi. There was even one graduate who selected a Marlyn Monroe quote that was about a paragraph long. I didn’t know she ever said that much.
After the obligatory speeches, the graduates received an actual diploma, with their names on it. None of that “silly place holder things until we see if you really did graduate” stuff over here.
Of course the tassel turning thing happened. Trust me, Rebecca is up there somewhere.
And it was all over except the recessional and pictures.
Becca’s going to BYU in case you didn’t know.
Life is full of beginnings and endings. We go to Disneyland for the first time—beginning. We swear we will “never do that again”—ending (we hope). We say goodbye to a place we’ve lived forever—ending . . . and beginning. Well this week was one of those ending things for us.
On Friday (April 29), Rebecca had her last concert (at least for high school). Michelle noted that we have been going to concerts and performances of one type or another ever since Brenton was in elementary school. So after 20+ years, we are finally through with school performances. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I have enjoyed the kid’s concerts (well mostly, there were some band concerts that bordered on the painful!). This week was no exception.
The band was great, the stringed orchestra sublime, and the choir simply amazing. Rebecca sung in four numbers. They kicked things off with “Do You Feel the Rhythm”. They also sung “One Note Samba”. Rebecca and two of her friends stole the show with their rendition of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”. Finally, they choir finished up with Queen’s “Somebody to Love”. Which (of course) is the center of my most favorite scene in Ella Enchanted. Michelle leaned over to me and said “Give it a little more soul!”.
So click here to see Rebecca and her friends sing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”.
The opening of “Diamonds”.
Honoring the Seniors that are graduating.
Rebecca and her friend Morgan.
And of course, Rebecca hamming it up.
