'An Awesome Graduation' is defiantly right! It was a blast, and hopefully I can recount here what it was like for me.
Mom and I drove over to the church to be there at 3:00pm. Mom, I, and some other graduates carried the lemonade inside to the gym kitchen. (After the graduation itself, they had a reception in the gym. We signed up to bring the drink.)
Then I went into the church proper and had my picture taken with the other graduates outside. We (the graduates) also got separate pictures of ourselves.
After that was all done, we came inside and got started signing each other's yearbooks. The yearbooks were really nice. They had pictures and full names of all the 15 graduates. (12 8th graders; 3 seniors.) In the end, I got 14 out of the 15 graduates to sign my yearbook.
Then we all cloistered in a room while Pam L. (the marvelous lady who coordinates the homeschool graduations) pointed us on how to take off/put on our caps. Seriously, wearing a cap is like balancing a ball on your head! Well, almost. And the tassel kept getting in your face, and sometimes in your teeth! Trust me, 'tassel' is NOT a good lunch or snack! ;)
Our pastor and speaker both came in to encourage us, and then graduation was upon us!
Here I go, I thought....
When it was my turn to s-l-o-w-l-y walk down the aisle to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance" I was very nervous! Even though Pam said to "smile, don't trip, and you'll do fine", still I went tense as a rock a few steps later as I marched down the aisle.
Thankfully I remembered what I was supposed to do, and honestly, all of the graduates did well.
There was the welcome, then a special music of flute/piano.
Then there was the speaker. His name: LeClare Litchfield. He is the chaplain of the local Adventist academy here. Litchfield was astounding! His talk was entitled, "What do you want?". He asked the graduates if God asked them "What do you want?", what they would say. He also asked us some other questions. Anyway, I'm sorry I can't tell about his talk in sufficient words, because Litchfield is beyond words!
Then my fellow 8th grade graduate Randy did an absolutely AMAZING, ASTOUNDING violin piece. It was a very complicated piece, and he did a job beyond words! ;)
After that, there was a little PowerPoint showing pictures of the graduates, along with a very nice complementary speech from the parents. ;)
Then Andrew D. (also an 8th grade grad.) thanked the parents for all their hard work. Then all thee graduates presented roses and kind letters.
After that all the graduates assembled for a group picture, while it seemed the WHOLE church turned out with their cameras to take a picture of us! ;)
Then, well...the graduates marched out and had a reception for the graduation attendees. We then got even MORE pictures taken with our families and friends. Also, the graduates worked on getting more signatures in our yearbooks.
And then, it was time to go. We left the church about 7:30, with me and Mom being there for 4 1/2 hours.
Lots of congratulations to my fellow grads and MANY thanks to Pam! ;)
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