A Week Ago

A week ago my brother graduated high school.  It was a long ceremony in a packed gymnasium and I was so ready for it to be over.  Especially since I had the baby and one of the highlights of my night was sitting on a toilet with her sprawled on my lap to change her because there was obviously no changing table in the women's bathroom at the high school.  Normally I would have changed her just on the bench in the gym, after all she's a baby.  But I barely had room to sit and there was no room for any of that.  

(My brother and I are the two who look alike, non?)

The baby did well as long as she had my necklace.  She stayed quiet the whole time until she began clapping and bouncing. (Well she talked to herself a lot, she's gonna be a chatterbox like her aunt!)

My brother looked good as usual.  The speeches weren't horrid.  And the last speech of the night quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last!" he said loudly before turning and spraying the school board (where my mother was sitting) with silly string!  We got out of there fairly quickly and enjoyed some food out at a local Perkins before heading home. 

Graduations are such an interesting time.  The end of one thing, the beginning of another.  I really wanted to get up and give a speech myself that said, "Right now you feel so grown up, within the next year that will change.  Appreciate it.  Don't rush the growing up.  Some of these people sitting near you will remain lifelong friends, most you won't remember in five years when you're scanning through everyone on your facebook.  Believe in yourself, don't allow labels to tell you who you are, and dream big.  And lastly, achieving those big dreams takes luck, lots of hard work, and I am sad to say, yes, it will always be partly a popularity contest so get over it."  

I was proud of my brother.  I will be even more proud as I watch him grow into a man.  Just not too soon, I hope.