@RightCoaster hoping your son’s relay does great and that the party gets cancelled before you have to say no…
Last 2 final exams for D19 today, then graduation practice. Actual graduation is Sunday.
Tonight is baccalaureate mass and D19 will give her speech. Right now, she’s the val but that could change based on the finals. She’ll know for sure when the principal calls her either Friday or Saturday.
It’s been that way for the last 3 out of the last 4 years. The val and sal are so close that the positions may switch after the last semester finals.
A couple weeks ago, I told D19 it’s ok not too push too hard at that point because she’s still heading to her dream school regardless of being val or sal. Last weekend, she ran her last race at the state finals and made the medal stand which gets her all-state track designation. She was on prom court a couple weekends ago. I joke around with my friends that I hope she’ll make something of herself at West Point after a lackluster HS career.
In all seriousness, she wants that last piece of recognition (#1 academically in her class), but I keep reminding her it’s not important to her family now or, frankly, won’t be important to anybody weeks from now.
We ordered her cake which is made up of a 4x6 arrangement of cupcakes. We ordered the to-die-for sugar cookies at the same place we ordered the cake. We were lucky. We were the 2nd to the last customer the cake place was taking orders for Sunday.
D16 continues to help with preparing for the grad reception after the ceremony on Sunday. Ordered food for it earlier this week.
Oh, and by the way, S23 has his 8th grade graduation next week Tuesday.
Family to pick up at the airport Saturday. Clean house, new oven to be installed next Tuesday, etc…
It’s been stressful this week. Haven’t had much time to come up for air…
@ChicagoSportsFn That’s interesting aboit switching Val/Sal so close to graduation. When I was in high school, positions were locked in based on first semester results (which meant you could slack second semester, I guess). No idea how they do it locally.
@ChicagoSportsFn that is cutting it really short on Val/Sal. Good luck to her! We knew for sure Tuesday before Sunday’s graduation which I thought was plenty short notice as it is. Final grades were in Monday. We were pretty sure DD was set as Val, but it was nice to hear the official announcement since Grandma was already spreading it around church!
LOL on the lackluster HS career. DD is right there with her. Before senior year started she had some goals- Class President (got it), lead in the musical (no but got a main cast role that she really got into), Homecoming Queen (got on Court), a varsity soccer goal (3 so far), and Valedictorian (got it). Throughout the year I tried to temper expectations and she realized it wasn’t all important in the long run but it really felt good to her in particular to earn valedictorian.
Today might be her next coup- scoring the summer job she REALLY wants. Her interview is at 6 and there are three tasks she has to complete today before the interview. I know one is not complete (making a phone call- the guy wasn’t available twice now). She’ll need to leave soccer practice early and make herself look presentable after running. So all that makes me nervous even though I am sure she will get it all together.
My son’s “last day” of high school is turning out quite comical. They had their official last day last Wed, then DS had to go back in Thursday to take a missed AP test (they let seniors be camp counselors for our 5th and 6th grade school camps, so these AP makeups are common). Friday, he had grad practice and the senior trip. Monday, he had to go back and get his cap and gown that he didn’t pick up at grad practice. Today, he had another AP makeup, and now he is FINALLY done! So his “last day” lasted a week. All of this made it much less emotional for me, and him, because there wasn’t really a defined end!!! Then this weekend we still have grad parties, Baccalaureate, actual graduation, then a school sponsored after grad party…so it’s really just on an on. Which is fine!
@ninakatarina We occassionally have some issues with the given name vs preferred name also.
We ended up with the opposite yearbook problem freshman year. Our son’s first picture wasn’t great, so we had him do retakes, and both pictures ended up in the yearbook, one under his first name and one under his middle name (preferred name). He was wearing a different color Polo t-shirt in each pics, so it really looked like a set of twins.
It’s a big high school, so multiple kids and even some teachers started asking him about his “twin”. Lol He was soooo mad at us at the time, but now he thinks it’s funny.
We even printed out a copy of that yearbook page and included it on his grad party table with a quip about his “yearbook twin.”
We decided not to worry about every tassel/stole/etc. S19 is pretty modest and has gotten a ton of acknowledgement through the county for his scores. He is wearing what the school gave him, but he didn’t bother filling out the forms for things like honor society cords, and I’m fine with that.
@RightCoaster I think that says a lot about your son, choosing the relay over the individual. I’d be very proud.
@carolinamom2boys that’s amazing news! Congratulations and good for him for just applying on his own, without any prodding, what a nice surprise and validating to even make it to the interview stage.
Sigh, and as a grand finale to my kid’s high school years, the HS has advanced from regional to national news, because why not? Evidently, they way that the administration gets “in front” of an issue, is to announce things in a way that almost ensures that at least some news agencies will not only have a story which is wrong, but have a story that is wrong in a way which presents the HS in the worst possible light…
@MWolf Double ugh. Was so hoping this would blow over for you all. Fingers crossed that the worst is over and you can turn your attention to graduation!
Last day of school here for my D. (She has a “final” on Wednesday for Anatomy, but this is just a formality as she has an A+ in the class 
) Real mixed emotions here. She is my baby, but I am so excited to see what her future brings.
@MWolf , ugh. Hope it blows over too.
I finally got a new avatar, feels weird to have something new but I always appreciate when I can be reminded where kids are going to school so I switched. My original avatar was noting special, just needed to find something quick when I first signed up and found a pretty picture D had taken.
Val and Sal are decided after the first semester here. They did not so Cum Laude, just Va;/Sal and top 10%. Of and the chorus kids got to go first because they had just sang the anthem and it was too hard to get them back in alphabetical order seats. 
@ninakatarina I am so annoyed for you that your school would not use the preferred name. They are good about that around here, even in middle school they used preferred names for kids.
@MWolf Sorry about the news situation!
@ChicagoSportsFn and @bjscheel That is great that your D’s both worked so hard for all of their accomplishments this year! D tried to finish strong. She did not slack off until the end when she had something for AP Stats that she hadn’t studied enough for- she asked if it really mattered if she got a B this semester and I said no way and to relax a little! I think she is a bit annoyed now because she was less than 1 point away from an A but hey, who cares now?
She is also possible skipping an AICE exam next week. She has been done with school for a bit, has already graduated, but has to go back the last two days of school for a two day AICE Environmental exam. It does not change her grade but if she skips it she will not get the 6.0 for the class, just a 4.0. Again I told her not to worry about it! The only reason she wold skip is if we end up going to NYC to the Gov Ball music festival to meet her new roommate. Not sure if it is happening yet but I told her I was fine with it.
Last day of school today here too. Last day assembly is done. Parents were invited but I couldn’t go because I had a stupid conference call, where I spoke a grand total of two sentences. Ugh. But we’re going to need all the vacation time I can scrape this summer, and this was sort of the culmination of several projects.
Friday is graduation. It’s an evening ceremony, but I think I can squeeze the afternoon off to help with last second impulse purchases and general pre-graduation frenzy. The practice for it is Thursday, so technically today isn’t the last day they will physically be at school. Mentally and emotionally, they’re all ready to move on. Well, maybe not emotionally.
DS19 just returned from their first graduation practice on the football field . His formal practice is Tues at the arena where it will happen next Sat. He was surprised when they gave him a letter addressed to him. He had forgotten that when he was in 8th grade , they were assigned a project to write a letter to themselves for graduation. He can’t wait to read it.
Aahhhh, she got the job! Nice to get the call before the long weekend. She’ll be working with the city Chamber of Commerce and she’s so excited. This is one of the areas she’s considering for a career. Our town is hosting 4th of July this year (we rotate with other towns) so she’ll do a lot of work for that and continue to do the social media and who knows what else. So now instead of being home every day bingeing on Parks & Rec, she can live it. 
She also got asked to tutor a 12 year old girl on math. She doesn’t really know where to begin, but if the parents or a teacher can get a list of concepts together, maybe she can figure something out?
Last day of HS. They have a “beach party” as is traditional, though I do not know what is going on with the rain and everything. D19 took a bunch of small gifts for teachers who really helped her during her years at HS, the teacher liaisons to the GSA as well as her GC and social worker. Her GC was really instrumental in getting her through HS in one piece, and he was also the one who nominated her for her scholarship.
However, to end her HS days, I not only had to drive her to school because it was raining, but she also asked me to bring something she had forgotten (a common occurrence during her 12 years at school). At least at college, she will always be able to walk back to her dorms if she forgets anything…
It is so weird. For 12 years we’ve had summer breaks in which we plan for the next year, get stuff together like proof of residency, make sure that there is a application for Fall semester class schedule, check out what date she has to pick up her books, check out fee schedule, add money to her cafeteria account, etc
Well, in all honesty, she has been taking responsibility for her schedule, making changed is consultation with her GC, and only keeping us updated when it was absolutely necessary.
The end of HS was so different in Israel. At least when I was growing up, it was more than just and end of HS and off to college or work, since it was the last summer break before you went to the army. It was truly your “last summer break”, especially since most Israelis did not attend university back then (about 19% had any tertiary education), and “summer break” was a misnomer for Israeli universities, since most were working full time and doing finals (they went on throughout the summer).
I much prefer what we have here for my D, even though tuition costs for Israeli universities when I attended were about $2,000-$3,000 a year in today’s dollars.
Well, D19 did the senior speech at the baccalaureate mass and she killed it! I was so nervous for her. I knew she was very nervous when she declined to eat supper with us. Everyone liked the speech. It had a good message and got laughs at the right places.
She got the call from the principal just before 1pm and she is co-Val. She was pleasantly surprised because she knew she didn’t do well on the calc final. She could have easily gotten a B or B+ in calc as a final grade with that difficult exam. She is relieved. I am relieved that I don’t have to console a what would have been an inconsolable kiddo.
Val comes with a large monetary award. She will be donating it back to her HS or some other good cause. She says others need the money more than she does. ?
You parents here have some truly great kids in what they do (helping others chase a medal rather than their own, giving back to the school, etc). Much kudos in raising good citizens who are already doing good in the world.
@ChicagoSportsFn You have an awesome daughter.
I am so impressed by all your amazing kids!!! What a group this class of 2023 is!
Well last day of HS more or less for S19. He still has 1 presentation on his 2 week senior internship but it is easy. But…he biked into school for a friend’s play tonight, was going too fast, and went over the handle bars. Ug. He’s ok, just one big road rash. Could have been so much worse. But he has a big paddlng race in two days. He’s going to be a mess.