<p>I just returned from watching my son participate in a regional Cultural Convention- forensics competition. He did wonderfully and hopefully will have fond memories of the experience- I know I will. I realized watching him yesterday that barring anything unforseen, that will be the last time I will see him participating in this sort of event. He has elected to not do the spring musical so I will not be seeing him in his other major EC again this year either…
I love watching him because he shows great courage, poise, finesse and skill- and always does what he does with joy…I am sad to think these were…the last time.</p>
<p>Have all of you had a few “last time” moments?</p>
<p>Yeah. D’s last ballet performances. Last “Nutcracker.” Last solo. Last Spring show. Similar to forensics in terms of focus, dedication, and gobbbling time over the years. Moreso, actually, because she’d been doing it since she was 5.</p>
<p>She’s actually in a ballet performance this semester at college but we will not see it.</p>
<p>i know the feeling. i enjoyed watching my daughter play competitive basketball,soccer and volleyball for nine years and all of that recently came to an end when she probably played her last really competitive sporting event. there is a void to fill.</p>
<p>Sniff! I had an unknowing “last time” moment watching my d perform a ballet solo in the annual Christmas ballet, during which I comforted myself by thinking I’d see her dance at least twice more, in the annual student performance and in a touring children’s production. Nope! She quit dance irrevocably the following month, after struggling with some very tough emotional issues and a rapidly deteriorating relationship with the school’s director. Wow, we’re sad to think we won’t see her dance again. Hope she feels differently next year at college.</p>
<p>On the bright side, she should play 2 more flute solos in the remaining hs concerts. I expect to shed a few tears during both.</p>
<p>Yes. Was just thinking the same thought, as I post this from our Boston hotel room. We just watched S perform with his jazz band for the last time at Berklee College of Music annual HS Jazz competition. We have had a lot of fun coming here and seeing wonderful hs musicians from all over.</p>
<p>Hey! all you Californians should seek out LA County College of Arts HS jazz combo. Stupendous!</p>
<p>I will still see S at home and state-level jazz, but each little “last” is noted. No tears, it is right and just that he move on, but…</p>
<p>I teared up watching my daughters high school basketball team win the state championship last night & she wasn’t even on the team!
Just knowing that some of those girls were seniors and that was their last time to play together did it.</p>
<p>My D has always had birthday celebrations at home, inviting a few close friends over. Except for the 16th. when she had 35 people.</p>
<p>I definitely found D’s last Birthday Party at home a bittersweet one, as she may never be at home in September again:(</p>
<p>And ironically she had a dress-up tea-party, all-girl; they arrived in gowns, hats, gloves, lace and frills. It was adorable, until I started bringing in the dainty fingerfoods, which they fell upon in a most un-ladylike manner.</p>
<p>“Pomp and Circumstance” makes me cry, even if I hear it in a commercial on the radio. My husband is transferring all of our old Beta videos onto DVD and we are watching them as they are retaped. I just started crying when I heard that music on the video of my son’s kindergarten/daycare graduation. Now I am afraid of what may happen at my daughter (youngest child’s) actual h.s. graduation this June. My daughter’s helpful suggestion: “Just don’t go, Mom!” Maybe I’ll sit on the very top row of the bleachers so no one will see me weeping!</p>
<p>The last concert I watched and listened to, I looked at my fully grown son and knew he just shouldn’t be here anymore; I listened to all the years of practice coming out in a professional sound and knew he shouldn’t be here anymore. Still…</p>
<p>At S’s school the winter theater production is traditionally a musical, which is something my S has loved. He was the baker this year in <em>Into the Woods</em>. That last performance was very moving for me, partly cause of just not knowing where he is going to be. Still, there are a whole bunch of soccer games left! The season hasn’t even officially begun!! Yippee! </p>
<p>(I am working on getting a life, I am working on getting a life, repeat after me . . .)</p>
<p>Our school did Into the Woods this year too! My D wasn’t in it, but I saw it though. It is a difficult show to put on well, and our school did a good job on it.</p>
<p>my D school did Into the woods
they did musicals in the spring though- plays were in the fall/winter
Her senior year production was A little night music
not my favorite
She did appear again freshman year in a chorus at college but after freshman year too busy for it</p>
<p>We were pretty scared about the play right up until opening night; son had so lowered expectations that we were really thrilled (and amazed) that it came together. I think that made the thing all the more poignant!</p>
<p>“Sometimes people leave you, halfway through the woods,” (weepy face)</p>
<p>We all cried when my D’s volleyball team bowed out of the state championship race last fall. They did win their league championship, but the cameraderie among the players was so great that no one wanted the season to end. Also went to my last HS wrestling match even though S stopped wrestling when he graduated from HS in '01. Right now, I’m counting the last PTO meetings I’ll be attending!</p>
<p>It was a double whammy when I watched D lose her last hs match. It was the match for the last qualifying spot for state tourney, and her last competitive match as she had made the decision to stop USTA play and also not play in college. But when one door closes, another opens. Two weeks ago, on a visit, I watched her run the 800m for her LAC’s track team. I was amazed and proud that she had the incentive to try another sport despite her lack of experience. This was another example of how she is fulfilling her wish to “try new things in a new environment”. Taught me that there will be many last times and first times ahead!</p>
<p>My “last time” was watching my son play varsity ice hockey for his High School team. He plays first line right wing and had a stellar year. He’s been playing competitive hockey - youth, travel teams, and high school - since he was four. I have been to almost every one of his games even though I’m a consultant who travels a lot. I even arranged to rotate into another group in my company so that I wouldn’t have to be away from home so much this year.
Funny thing about his last game though, was we never knew which game it would be - the season ends with the State playoffs and his last game would be the game his team lost on the playoff ladder or if they won the State Championship. Unfortunately they lost in the second roung - they were leading 3-2 with SIXTEEN seconds to go - the other team scored off a face-off. One 15-minute overtime period - no score. So it went to a shoot-out - my son’s team lost.<br>
I’m hoping that he plays club hockey somewhere - maybe UCLA which has a surprisingly robust program - but it will never be the same as all these years standing by the side of the rink watching him play.</p>
<p>GoUSa: Dontcha just hate shoot outs- it seesm like such a horrid way to win a hard fought game. We do field hockey, there was one tournament where every game in the top tier- Qfinals, Sfinals, and final was decided by strokes!</p>
<p>We watched our last field hockey game last fall, after a great season and “state championship” level play followed by the last varsity basketball game (captain) after years of AAU and traveling teams. Happily both seasons ending on a positive note with good memories and fun times. Thank goodness we still have the spring sport and the likelihood of college play. When you have spent so many years heading to every game, every tournament, knowing all the kids on 12 years worth of teams, it is sad seeing it come to an end…and it can be tough to remember what we did with ourselves before all this!</p>
<p>“Careful the tale you tell…that is the spell”</p>
<p>The witch always makes me cry - S was Rapunzel’s Prince in 8th grade and Narrator/Mysterious Man last year. This year the musical, How to Succeed, is the last two weekends of April (we WILL have sent off our deposit by then, we WILL, we WILL have made a decision!) and I am preparing to cry when the seniors give their love and encouragement to the cast and crew in the meeting before the last performance, and cry again when S sings “I Believe in You.”</p>
<p>My older S had a dilemma last weekend and chose for the first time in 4 years not to be part of his last JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society) competition so he could instead spend the entire weekend at his last FIRST Robotics Competition with the team he helped start four years ago. He was talking about how it was his last robotics competition so he ought to go, just nonchalant like “so what”, and I was getting all weepy inside.</p>
<p>I had to stay home with younger S who was in 5 dance performances the same weekend, so I missed seeing older S’s team <em>WIN</em> the regional competition. (!!) So it <em>won’t</em> be his last competition after all: he’ll get to go to Nationals in Atlanta in late April! (By the way, both JV and Varsity JETS teams also earned first places that day back at home, without him. )</p>
<p>It’s an interesting roller coaster, isn’t it.</p>
<p>I watched my son play his last basketball game last week. During the game I did think about how many hundreds of games I have watched him play since first grade clinic. It’s been a big part of our lives and a lot of fun. While he won’t play in college, I know he’ll play thousands more basketball games, but I’m not likely to see any of them! I’ll miss watching something that makes him so happy - and I’ll especially miss all the parents I’ve become good friends with in the stands.</p>
Maybe I’ll sit on the very top row of the bleachers so no one will see me weeping!</p>
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