More Milestones

The pomp and circumstance has begun. My third child is about to graduate high school. The past weeks have brought his 18th birthday, his completion of the Eagle rank in Boy Scouting, and now, all the end of the year events for seniors. Our family sort of shuns pomp and circumstance, so these things have never been our favorites, and Sam especially would rather not have to have any of the walking and costumes and all that. But, it is the way our society recognizes achievement, and it creates memories, so there you go. Sam's amazing year of wrestling brought him one more honor at the Senior Awards Ceremony, and all the seniors were there in their gowns, sweltering in the un-air-conditioned auditorium (there's the memory part). It was a nice moment for him to receive such a recognition and I'm glad I got to see it. They kept changing the lights, and we actually had no idea which award he was receiving, so when the moment came, I was unprepared and my camera settings were all wrong, but I had to go with it. Thus I have, shall we say, "creative" shots of his award from the Marine Corps. He sums up the moment and the relative value of the award by reporting that his certificate in its folder made for a mighty fan to keep him cool (much better than the flimsy program). I still haven't talked him into a senior photo shoot, but I think I'll corral him on Sunday while he is still in his suit after church. We might get his announcements out by the time he starts college. Anyway, I could gush on about this boy for several more paragraphs, but he'd be annoyed, so I won't. Let's just leave it at the fact that he's awesome, I'm so proud of him and feel so lucky to be his mom.