<p>Back from picking up announcements. Now I have to get organized for slide show. Does anyone else have a slide show running during their party? Many do this around here. Finding music is hard for me and will make me cry.</p>
<p>TOS, Brooks Brothers. Fairly painless ultimately.</p>
<p>You all are making me cry (more).</p>
<p>No slide show here. There are groups that do slide shows, but Son isn’t part of any of them. Lots of church groups do them. Our church had Senior Recognition Sunday last Sunday. The church honored the seniors by having them all sit together and then having them stand up. That’s it. Their names weren’t even written down anywhere. Oh well, it’s easy not to cry when the events are that impersonal!</p>
<p>last year at my s’s h.s. awards ceremony they had a slide show with each student morphing from baby pic into h.s. senior—we were all puddles</p>
<p>history–I did a shadowbox for my son last year—(foolishly thinking he’d bring it to his dorm–what was I thinking) but he did really like it and it hangs in his room at home.</p>
<p>I just remembered zoosermom started a thread last year that had some great song suggestions for grad parties. If I remember correctly someon even made a goodye cd for daughter heading out to school. I’ll see if I can find it!!!</p>
<p>edit: Found it!!
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/562630-one-song.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/562630-one-song.html</a></p>
<p>I feel so left out of the NYC discussions. I lived on 29th and 3rd for 6 years before getting married (husband wouldn’t live in Manhattan so we moved to the burbs).</p>
<p>They do slideshows for the kids as a senior farewell but I don’t think parents are invited (not fair at all).</p>
<p>Our graduation doesn’t require tickets at all. We have plenty of space and no one to come. My mom will be out of the country and there are no other grandparents and the rest of my family lives far away (as in some out of the country). So send any spare relatives my way. We’ll figure out something to do with them.</p>
<p>On the other hand DS’ college graduation requires tickets and for the university-wide event we get a whopping 2 and there will be 4 of us there (my mom’s making that one). For the undergraduate ceremony which follws the university-wide ceremony we don’t need tickets. So we get to do the seat shuffle and find the rest of the family ;)</p>
<p>CPeltz, you know you can whine and vent here anytime for as much as you want. And, we’ll be around when that turns into relief and celebrating whether it be this week or next fall. In one of your posts you mentioned a deadline of today, but perhaps backtracking on that and giving him the time he feels he needs might be beneficial. He absolutely knows the deadline for the schools. Why impose another? Just a thought…</p>
<p>Re: quilts, etc. I can’t even sew a hem but I am having someone make a t-shirt pillow for my daughter. Probably won’t get done until she goes to school, so it’ll be a “welcome to freshman dorm” gift. My sister did quilts for both her BOYS (or rather, had them made) and they both really appreciated them even though they don’t seem all that sentimental on the outside.</p>
<p>We told our D last evening we really needed to fax in her “college choice” card to National Merit (she was listed as “undecided” til now) and she stiffened at the thought of the commitment that implied. Actually, the college to which we’re going to fax it is really the only one left on her list where it matters (as the UCs don’t give NM awards), so we might as well send it in!</p>
<p>But it was hard to see her anxiety. She was able to verbalize it a little: all that she’ll be giving up (friends, family, home). I suppose the good news is that she’s so happy this year (finally! fall was tough!) that she doesn’t want it to end. I’m hoping once it does end, and we’re in the midst of summer, excitement for college will build. But I’m with those of you parents whose kids seem more anxious or disappointed or even indifferent than excited about their prospects. But maybe it’s not really the school that’s she’s anxious about – it’s just everything that goes with “college.”</p>
<p>In any case, right now she’s in the midst of rehearsals for the spring musical (she’s a dancer in it), and APs are looming; so maybe I need just to let her enjoy the tap dancing (she’s having a ball!) and focus on all those APs…</p>
<p>Zetesis: I’ve oftened noticed this. Just when things start to click is when we have to move on. It seems so counterintuitive, but there it is.</p>
<p>Yesterday Son was saying it was like a video game…you finish one game, then start the sequel with the same main character but all different other characters and locations.</p>
<p>Is your dancer daughter going to keep it up in college?<br>
What’s the spring musical with tap?</p>
<p>I am tearing up hearing all of your stories - my waterworks have been on quite a bit last week. I would gaze out the window of my office watching the newest crop of prospectives checking out Eastman, and the combination excited/scared looks they had. made me realize that as our cycle is ending, another is beginning for another group of students and parents. After the last two cycles and their craziness, wonder what they will have to face…</p>
<p>Our news of the day is pretty sad - there was a fiery crash last night not a mile from my house, two young men who graduated a year ahead of my D were killed - whole lives ahead of them. Gotta hug yours and remind them to be careful driving during prom/grad season, as always…</p>
<p>Thanks for the commiseration.</p>
<p>The spring musical is “Crazy for You.” D had never tap danced before, but she took a few lessons, made the play, has continued extra lessons, and has turned out to be pretty darn good at it. And she loves it. She (and all the dancers) play “follies girls” and this is so unlike her in “real life” that it’s just a lot of fun. Yes, she hopes to keep dancing in some way in college. </p>
<p>But here’s the other problem. She does aerial silks (climbing, twisting, hanging, “falling,” on strips of “silk” = polyester hanging from the ceiling). She had done it for about a year or so, then she really started enjoying it, taking private lessons, and is getting pretty darn good at it. </p>
<p>We didn’t really know till recently how much she’s getting into it and loves it. Needless to say, it’s hard to find this discipline at or a near a college that meets other needs. We’ve tried to suggest a variety of ways she can stay in physical shape (she is incredibly strong/fit, especially arms, upper body, and core) so that if she were to come home in the summer she could resume her private lessons – her latest idea is to find the rock climbing club and teach the club how to do aerial in the off season! We just don’t know if a college will allow her to rig her silks and keep practicing. It’s hard to find someone who will/can say “yes” or “no.” </p>
<p>I just wish I’d been more savvy about all this sooner …</p>
<p>oh rachacha - I HATE to hear those things, yet they cannot be ignored. So sad. Makes me glad my son is slow to drive and we live so far off the beaten track that no one wants to come get him.</p>
<p>my nephew was accepted at Eastman (School of Music) but cannot go because they cannot afford it.</p>
<p>We too are back to trying to figure out how to pay and discussing a GAP year if son’s chosen school allows a deferral - so S can get a job to earn money to pay for some of his tuition, can learn to drive, and can work on his writing skills before attending college. We are getting a polite but definitive “no” with regard to an additional award (though I plead our case one last time) and the message from RPI is NOT definitive (only probable)-not to mention the school no longer really appeals to him now that he has made a choice
sigh</p>
<p>Wow, I’ve never heard of aerial silks!</p>
<p>All three of my kids tap. I’ve never been one to live vicariously through my kids, but this winter when D was in a little sailor outfit, tapping on stage in Anything Goes, I teared up and thought, “She is doing something I’ve wanted to do my whole life.”</p>
<p>Thank goodness for CC. H and S1 left about 2:30 for WVU, leaving me alone with the cat. For some reason the quality of silence changes when I know nobody is coming back for a few days. </p>
<p>I would love to join in on the relative exchange. We get 8 tickets for graduation and have 8 coming. It is at an arena downtown and something I could care less about. More are coming for the party, but MY MOTHER has decided to pass on the party because she doesn’t think she would enjoy it!! She is driving out from West Virginia for the graduation ceremony the day before but won’t stay the next day for the Sunday party, even though I begged her. Didn’t even bother to come up with an excuse. Just said a large party is not her cup of tea and she would rather get back for church.</p>
<p>Sharon, great NYC address.</p>
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<p>Of course, the big uncertainty in the plan would be the job market. Son kept his last year’s summer job during the school year, working one or two four hour shifts per weekend. The hope was for him to work *a lot *more hours in the summer. But the “adult” full timers have had their hours cut from 40 to 32 and the kids are being drastically cut.</p>
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<p>My inlaws do that type of thing on a regular basis. I try not to hold it against them…in 25 or 30 years, I too may have the attitude that I’ll do what I darned well want and skip whatever I want to skip.</p>
<p>I like the pillow t-shirt idea. I was very intimidated by a quilt, but I might be able to manage a pillow. I would love to take S2’s football Jersey and turn it into a pillow. He has had the same number since he was 11 years old–the year he broke his femur playing football. I can tell this is going to be a sentimental week-end with this group, particularly after the car crash story. That is awful.</p>
<p>As an aside, he wore the FBI t-shirt we picked up for him in DC when he left today. I can’t believe I actually bought him something he likes.</p>
<p>missypie – D’s teacher recently opened in Las Vegas for Cirque de Soleil. I think our D would take a gap year to do aerial… But you have to be pretty good to earn a living at it, and she’s not there yet! I’d never heard of aerial silks either until they were introduced at D’s dance studio two summers ago. </p>
<p>When D was so indecisive about college, we suggested a gap year – but that didn’t seem to appeal to her either. She knows she can’t have it all; and it’s hard to let go of what she can’t have…</p>