Lunchtime graduates

I have no idea what part high school graduates are going to at noon on a weekday, but I’m sure they will find one.

It seems more and more area high schools, including all five in Stafford County, are holding their graduation ceremonies in the early hours of the day. Most of the ceremonies have been scheduled at 9 a.m.

When I was in high school the graduation ceremony was held at the high school football stadium in the late afternoon. It was a giant party with a football game-like atmosphere.

Everyone was celebrating sitting through 12-years of the public education system, and now we we’re actually getting out!

Immediately following the ceremony my friends and I went to a celebration called Grad Night. This was where we gathered to play games, hang out and sign the last few yearbooks, and see all of our friends for one last big hurrah.

We didn’t know at the time, but this was going to be one of the last times we would ever see so many familiar faces in the same room again.

For many, it was also the first time high school students turned official adults showed their teachers they smoked cigarettes. They were adults now. Who was going to stop them?

I look back on that challenging, but fun time in my life 8-years ago and remember having so many questions as to what I was going to do next? Who was I going to be? Where was I going to go? For the most part none of them have been answered yet. But I am working on them.

So weather you go home and watch soap operas immediately following the graduation ceremony, or you gear up the beach cruiser for a week in the sun, remember these times because they will never come again.

Congratulations Class of2008!