Yes me too. I hope they have some kind of consequence to the kids who pulled the alarm if they were caught.
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A parent suggested to the school admin that those 2 kids pay the additional costs (they have been identified). Seems very fair to me but guessing thatâs not going to happen.
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This is also like the weather test of seeing a college when itâs rainy/bad weather. If you can handle the travel delays to get to the college and home when it is challenging, you will be okay when itâs fine. D22 had super challenging air travel home - like took over 24 hours, re-routed multiple times, slept in the airport etc. to get home from an admitted student event and it solidified that they wanted to be much closer to home for college.
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D24âs single wait list was her RD add-on. Itâs one I wonder about because she really liked it after visitingâŠin January. If she had visited earlier and applied EA instead, who knows.
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Jumping back to share S24âs school usually sends 3-4 to Ivy schools, and no Ivy commitments this year.
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Here in Houston we just had a terrible storm. If not tornados, then 100+ mph straight line winds that flattened the electrical grid. 40% of the area is without power.
One of my kidâs schools has already cancelled, and one of the others was in the middle of the worst part. D24s school is downtown where there are a ton of blown out skyscraper windows and it looks worse than any hurricane Iâve seen in 20 years.
Her graduation is supposed to be at a cathedral downtown and⊠uh⊠I will be shocked if their windows were not destroyed. So who knows whatâs happening for graduation. Probably at least a quarter of her class still wonât have power by Saturday morning.
This is so terrible.
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D24 is a graduate! Our ceremony was tonight and sheâs at the all night party now. Yay! She looked so happy. She and her friends are so glad to be done! They are nervous about the future but are ready.
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S24 also graduated this evening. He is happy.
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DS got his Classics Diploma last night. He has his Multi-Variable/Diff. Eq. final today and heâll be basically done. Next week is all gravy. Of course, heâs got to start packing up his dorm. I told him to start giving stuff away to underclassmen. Fortunately, heâs not traveling back home with us after graduation. That will give us more room in the car for his stuff. Heâs hanging out for a few days to enjoy the various parties and will fly back home a few days later. I canât believe this is all wrapping up.
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So today is âPrize Dayâ where they announce various school awards at an assembly, and we got an email to parents saying we should make sure to come to the ceremony because S24 is getting something (we donât know what yet, it was a form email), but to not tell our kid so it can be a surprise.
And of course NiceUnparticularMom doesnât read to the end of the email, and tells S24 we are coming!
I guess it is never too early to learn how to fake being surprised at your âsurpriseâ party . . . .
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Current status: Todayâs graduation rehearsal cancelled. In-laws not traveling here. Still donât know if, when and where graduation will be held.
These kids started high school during Covid, and now have the end wiped out by what was essentially a surprise category 2 hurricane.
One of my sonâs schools has downed trees blocking every entrance to the school, as well as the only street to get there. They say it will take several days to remove it all.
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Thatâs such a bummer. Hopefully some of the celebrations can be rescheduled. I hope you all get through the storms safely.
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I am so sorry to hear this. Thinking of you and your community!
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I hope you guys get to have a grad ceremony soon! 
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Yesterday eveningâs graduation ceremony was great. The principal did some specific student mentions during her speechâŠAt first, I thought she was mentioning something cool about each student (thereâs only 29 of them), but she only did student mentions for some of them and D24 was one. 
The slide show of everybodyâs little kid pictures was really fun and totally adorable.
All of the high school teachers went to the ceremony. Apparently this doesnât happen every year. D24 said that the teachers really love her graduating class. Got a really nice pic of D24 with her French teacher.
D26 had 2 final exams yesterday so it was a jam packed day. DH had to go pick her up from school at 4:00 when the AP Bio exam finished, feed D26 something along the way, and then meet up with the rest of us at the venue.
Meanwhile, D24 decided to give rides home for 2 friends from the rehearsal, which meant that she was delayed in getting home so I had to scramble a bit to do her hair before we had to all pile into our cars to leave.
I got to shake the hand of the mom of one of D24âs BFFs. Told the mom that Iâm so thrilled that our daughters became such good friends.
The salutatorianâs speech was really great. He won the special $5000 scholarship from the high school. My kids were on the Robotics team with him for a couple of years. Heâs a good egg and a really hard worker. His speech talked a bit about being courageous to take risks and how that applies to life in general. Heâs going to study mechanical engineering.
There were 2 valedictorians and one of them was Braggy Pants Girl. Her speech included some Drake quotes and D24 said that she heard one of her guy friends in the row behind her say quietly, âDrake? Seriously?â 
Her speech was a little annoying. This is the girl who bragged for the last year and a half how she was going to attend an Ivy League school. She is not going to one of those.
The other valedictorianâs speech was much better. He is one of D24âs crew of good friends. His speech did some fun reminiscing, touched a bit on everybody dealing with COVID and how they all persevered through that, and talked about how the graduating class felt like a big family. D24 was sitting in the front row of kids on the stage, so we got to see all of her reactions to every speech and at this point, she looked like she was about to cry.
The principal almost cried a few times in her speech and that made me cry. You could tell that all of the students really love this principal.
Then the faculty member who spoke was the AP English Lit teacher, who they all had for Honors English Lit in 9th grade and then AP Lit in 11th grade. She cried during her speech. That made me cry. And then I looked at my kid on the stage and she looked like SHE was about to cry and I thought, âDonât look at D24!â At the end of maybe 10th grade, the English Lit teacher got married and a bunch of D24âs classmates (including my kid) attended the teacherâs wedding ceremonyâŠthe teacher didnât know about it beforehand. It was a surprise. The teacher took a photo with all of them. D24 said at the time that it was really great, the teacher cried, a bunch of the students who went cried. This school is the Lit teacherâs first teaching job out of college and this yearâs graduating class was the first group of students she taught after graduating from college. It was a beautiful and totally wholesome moment listening to her say so many kind and loving words to all of the students in the ceremony yesterday. 
I sat next to D26 and made her mad because I was cheering, shouting, and whooping (you know, doing a lot of âWOOOO!!â) for D24 and all of her friends. Afterwards, D24 said she and her friends could tell it was me. D24 also said that she really appreciated me cheering for all of her buddies because some of her friendsâ families were quiet and didnât make a lot of noise.
We ran into the Bio teacher after the ceremony. Heâs a great guy. He and D26 talk Marvel and Star Wars stuff a lot before and after class. He asked D26 how she thought the AP Bio exam went. D26 said, âPretty good. I thought it was easy.â Bio teacher didnât miss a beat and said, âThatâs because your AP Bio teacher is a good teacherâ and everybody laughed because: (a) it was a true statement; and (b) the teacher has this hilarious sense of humor.
Ran into D24âs AP Music Theory teacher (she took that in 11th grade) and it was nice chatting with him. D24âs senior project advisor also attendedâŠsheâs the Latin teacher. It was fun chatting with her.
8 out of the 29 are attending college out of state. Braggy Pants Girl and another of the Mean Girl Crew are going to be freshman roommates, D24 has informed us.
No grad night stuff at our high school. We all got into our PJs when we got home and D24 did gift unwrapping. Ate a bunch of cake and ice cream. Family friend of ours stopped by to say congrats. Us adults had margaritas with fresh strawberries and some mulberries (the mulberries were from our backyard!). That was pretty delicious.
D24 completed the entrance loan counseling for the fed student loan she applied for. Annual physical with the pediatrician is today and D24 has a work shift this evening at Marshallâs. Sheâs mad at me because apparently I forgot to tell her about the dr appt. HeyâŠIâm doinâ my best here, kiddo!
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She went for BBL Drizzy? 
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See, you are such a good parent you raised the overall parent average!
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I hope it gets rescheduled. It would be an awful way to end high school with it just canceled.
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I agree!!
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Oh, NO! Our valedictorian quoted Drake too. But sheâs not a BPG. Our BPG didnât even make the top 10! Sheâs going to a decent schoolâbut I have to gloat a little that D24 was number 3, well ahead of the BPG.
There was no problem with any child not getting enough âWOO-WOOsâ from the crowd at our ceremony. Weâre an urban ATL-area school, and I told my dad that he should expect a sporting-event-like atmosphere. I actually like it that our families and students express their joy so effusivelyâand will throw in joy for others who seem to have few people present. I hope everyone has a fabulous graduation this weekend if youâre scheduled. And I hope for better graduation days ahead for Houston.
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