<p>Harriet, wish we could swap graudation locations with you…we’re in a huge convention center arena with no apparent limits and don’t have very many people attending.</p>
<p>Cpeltz: I bet that if you get less “invested” in him liking his “choice” he will get more so. It is the weird dialectic of teens in transition. Might work to just get yourself very focussed on something else for a month. He will be bewildered and disoriented by this if you can pull it off…but might put his own attention on what he actually liked about the place. Especially if you give him the idea that you’ve realized you could be happy to save the money and have him go to the community college and be at home. (that might take some mighty acting skills I suppose)</p>
<p>missypie, deal! 
But you’ll have to jump on that blindingly-white pants thing really fast. . . . Or, wait - how about if I send some of my relatives to your S’s graduation?</p>
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<p>Hmm…I already spent quite a bit of time looking on line for those pants. The navy uniform web site didn’t work?</p>
<p>As for relatives, of course I’d need to interview them, but I generally enjoy other people’s relatives more than my own. I hope they’re not vegans, however, because the post-graduation lunch is at Outback.</p>
<p>You know, in this tight economy where lots of folks can’t afford to travel great distances, maybe we could have a relative exchange…CCers relatives who live close to me could come to my kids’ graduation, my relatives could come to yours…They don’t know all those kids anyway…</p>
<p>Really MUST get to those graduation announcements this weekend.</p>
<p>Ackk…graduation ceremony!!! We only get three tickets! H, D1 and me! You can try and get tickets from smaller families but it is hard!!! If the weather is nice it is outside and you don’t need tickets but it is a last minute decision and they have only had outside graduation twice in twelve years! That’s why we do the grad party thing since you can’t get anyone in to the ceremony and then the grads rush home to change and attend the senior class lock-in party at the school. I am less organized and way more emotional this time around. Must be because D2 is the baby???</p>
<p>The Sabbath Prayer song from Fiddler on the Roof does it for DH and me. We dissolve into puddles.</p>
<p>historymom, I was 100 miles from home and hardly ever came back! S1’s best buddy is at the flagship 30 minutes away, and like most local kids who attend there, they are so wrapped in up with all the things happening on campus that they never leave. His parents like being able to run over and have the occasional Sunday lunch with him, and with the girls at SMC, things like Parents’ Day will be accessible for you.</p>
<p>I envy those of you with family members who come to graduations, etc. Too much geographic distance and not enough $$ among my family for these things. My BIL (DH’s brother) really makes an effort to get the family together several times a year, and I admire him for it.</p>
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<p>My high school and undergrad ceremonies were huge, cattle call events. Early on in law school I saw pictures of their graduation…chairs set up in the adorable little law quad, with herald trumpets on the roof of the law library!!! For two and a half years I prayed for sunshine so we could have the law quad/trumpeters on the roof graduation, and my prayers were answered!</p>
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<p>Not “How Can I Hope to Make You Understand”?
“God alone knows when we shall see each other again.”
“Then we will leave it in His hands.”
Sob. Sob.</p>
<p>That one has gotten me since I was 11 years old!</p>
<p>We may bemoan our seniors going to college across the country, but can you imagine raising kids in an era where when they moved away (to Siberia?), you might never see them again? Sob. Sob.</p>
<p>sob sob…</p>
<p>working from home today to focus on prom…d and bf running in and out with prom prep…I’m um “distracting” myself from obsessing and/or tears by starting to make a memory quilt/painting as a grad present, have all the old dresses, tees, blankets, but not sure if I can deal with the sewing, so may do a mixed media painting instead. any ideas?</p>
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<p>Doesn’t seeing all the old dresses, tees and blankets make you want to cry more?</p>
<p>Looks like I’m tardy to the party, but CONGRATULATIONS, TwinK and TwinE!!! And to their dear mama, who will have her chicks a little closer to her nest. Awesome news.</p>
<p>cpeltz, my best friend’s son is at Marquette and loves it. Maybe some of the ambivalence is the finality of the choice? The road not taken and all that? Choosing means letting go of other options, and I think there’s a little bit of a grief process that goes along with that.</p>
<p>lindz, enjoy the prom festivities!! It’s sweet, sweet, sweet. </p>
<p>HMW, where DID you find the white britches??</p>
<p>^missypie, that’s exactly what I was thinking!</p>
<p>I often think of that with the pioneers–saying goodby to your young adults knowing that you would not see them again. Guess that comes from being near the end of the Oregon Trail.
A friend’s S lives 10 minutes from their house and they never see him. Maybe once a month.
I also wanted mine to apply to the Midwest as I grew up in Indiana and went to Butler and IU. The refused and I think it is because it is so flat compared to the PNW. I keep pointing out that it makes for great biking…</p>
<p>Oh and if anyone really wants some relatives I have a very difficult mother to offer…:(</p>
<p>missypie—actually doesn’t make me sad, feels nice to look at and create something that will “somehow pull those pieces all together” out of all the years…and then give it to my d so she can hold onto it.</p>
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<p>And maybe never even knowing what happened to them. There was a couple in my family tree who went west with their passel of little kids. Both mom and dad died on the journey and their kids were raised by who knows who…The kids probably had no idea how to get in touch with the relatives back home…(Of course, someone eventually knew or this bit would not be in the family geneology.)</p>
<p>The quilt sounds like such a great idea, but if I had a girl, I’d be one of the moms thinking that I should be making one knowing I never would. Speaking of which…for those who have less sentimental kids, i.e., boys, what gifts are you getting them? S says he wants nothing, no trip, just a laptop, but it’s such a landmark passage it’s hard not to want to mark it somehow.</p>
<p>You all are the best! Thanks for the congrats. I think it was crzymom who asked if E’s decision was influenced by her sister’s and really they both came to the decision simultaneously and independently after their overnight there tu/wed.</p>
<p>E was nervous thinking that people would think she chose it b/c of K but really I think it just spoke to her more than the other places. </p>
<p>Now I have to get over myself and with the help of you all and my DH I think I am on the road. </p>
<p>cpeltz be sure and let us know OK!</p>
<p>lindz, your words are comforting to me. Thanks. E did say that she didn’t want to be in the same dorm as K and though their rooms were right next door to one another on the overnight they didn’t spend more than an hour or so together while they were there.</p>
<p>CD the sabbath prayer from Fiddler on the Roof gets me every time as well as the line from Wonder of Wonders</p>
<p>“Out of a worthless lump of clay
God has made a man today” Mottle (sp) is so full of love for Tzeitle (sp) that it makes the song, which is really exuberant and fun so tender at the end…sigh I LOVE that show.</p>
<p>cpeltz, my crafty SIL is making those quilts for my girls for their grad gifts. I am going to stick some memorabilia in a shadowbox for each. That’s as crafty as I get.</p>
<p>For a graduation gift, we bought S a french horn (used - those suckers are expensive!). He’s been playing a school-issued horn, but wants to continue in college.</p>
<p>And yes, “Fiddler on the Roof” usually turns me into a puddle of mush, too.</p>