Graduation - Andy and Others

Our son Andrew graduated yesterday, June 13, 2004. He is the last of our 4 kids to graduate from James Madison Memorial High School. We started this journey of children and school almost 25 years ago when Kelly entered school as a Kindergartener. Then after she began high school 9 years later we went on another 16 year streak of continuous high schoolers.
It's so strange to think no more school events: no parent-teacher conferences, no last minute school projects, no $20 here, $50 there...no football, soccer, or band concerts or major and minor school events...25 years, and the journey has finally ended.
I don't feel old, but I do know that I'm much further down the road than when we first begun.

Congratulations Andy... we're very proud of you. You made the journey at the end a lot sweeter because of your character and values. I enjoyed watching you do your Senior year and I'm very proud of you. I'm also proud of your friendships. Watching Kyle and Andy Pratt, along with your other friends is a real privilege.

I watched with great interest the many kids who graduated yesterday. I couldn't help but muse inside about several things:
1) The kids with names two difficult to pronounce -- Hmong, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc... and wondered how those who had emigrated felt having gone through the school system and getting their high school diploma in America?
2) The minority kids whose families raised quite a ruckus when their names were announced and they strutted across the stage to get their diplomas. I thought about how subdued most white kids and their parents/families were (some exceptions, including ours which cheered loudly for Andy and his friends). I wondered if the minority kids' families were just thrilled that someone in the family showed promise...someone did something of significance in an otherwise difficult life?
I don't know if either of these are true observations or not...they simply represent some musings about the character of others at our Son's high school graduation.