Before yesterday, I thought commencement ceremonies for the end of elementary school were dumb. The whole trickle down of pomp and circumstance seems ridiculous to me. On the other hand, I am a firm believer in rituals to mark important occasions. Not only do I believe in them, I need them. So, I discovered that I needed this ceremony, and, despite it lasting 2 hours, it was done very very well.

First, all the kids dressed up which made the occasion special right there. They looked on the cusp of teenhood--sweet, childish, but you could see the older person they would become.

Mom, Rose, and I went to four different stores to put together Rose's outfit and none of us love to shop. We kept a good attitude, but it was a little nerve wracking. Turns out Rose did have a vision and our first round did not match it. You know how when you are doing research, you find a promising source and then look at its references? That's what we finally did with the dress. Rose had a too small/winter toned dress that she loved, so we looked at the designer and thanks to Amazon Prime were able to get the perfect dress to us in a day.

The ceremony started with a very touching good-bye to the Health and Fitness teacher. We all adore him. His influence is felt way beyond his classroom. He started to cry during the tribute to him, so that set the right tone. This is important. This is serious. This matters. And, even though we might be very excited about heading to the next stage, leaving this one is sad.

Then the teachers paid tribute to every fifth grader, all sixty some of them. And by tribute I mean a three-five paragraph speech about who they are at their core, what they brought to the classroom, where they want to head. We learned about the child who had few friends last year and became a leader this year, the child who faced her problems with reading head on and accepted help, the child who questioned authority, the child who laughed at all the jokes. . . It was fair, balanced, and lovely. One of the teachers said he spent eight hours writing them, and I believe it.

Rose's will be coming with her today, the last day of school, so you will see it soon.