A Good Night for a Graduation

It was a clear sunny day here for our last Local Businessman High School event yesterday – seven years of concerts, conferences, plays, and the occasional sporting event coming to an end with a graduation ceremony under a hot June sun. I’m not really sure I’m going to know how to react in September when I have nothing to do for the local public school district – we’ve had kids enrolled for nearly two decades now – but I suppose I will find out.

And there is no better way to close out your time with a school district than watching your child graduate.

The Squad came over in the late afternoon, after graduation practice was over. They brought their caps and gowns, as well as the various colored cords that they’d earned. Lauren had two cords – one for French Honor Society and one for having served on the Link Crew welcoming in new students to LBHS – and all of the rest of the Squad had at least that many (Isabella had six, which was the most in the class). It wasn’t until I got to the ceremony and looked at the program and saw that most students didn’t have any cords that it hit me just how talented this group is. I mean, I knew that. But sometimes the fact just hits harder than others.

Kim ironed the ones that needed it, and eventually we headed over to LBHS for pictures.

I like that they ask me to take pictures, and the joy of digital photography is that you can take hundreds of them in the fond hopes that at least some of them will turn out well. There were pictures by the front door in all of the possible permutations, as well as more pictures over by a (much shadier) wall, an abortive try at a few by the big rock that some previous visitors had decorated with inartistically rendered dicks, and a much happier group of photos taken over by the LBHS sign. We even took some photos that showed off the various caps that they had decorated.

You’re allowed to decorate your graduation cap these days, which is a nice thing I think. They do reserve the right to preapprove your artwork, of course, but most people just want to have a bit of fun so it worked out well. Lauren had a particular design that she wanted, based on an album cover, and Oliver said he’d do the actual painting. It turned out well.

And then it was dinner time.

They schedule these things for the early evening because it’s still light out but the temperatures are going down a bit, and that works out great except that the students have to be there early to get ready and the rest of us have to get there early to get seats so dinner tends to be rather sooner than usual. And that’s okay! Culvers will sell us burgers pretty much any time we ask them to do so, and that’s just one of the lovely benefits of living near one.

Now that people are getting vaccinated and the pandemic is receding a bit here in Wisconsin you can actually eat in a restaurant again, which is nice. It does take a bit of getting used to after a year of curbside pickup and takeout, but I’m going to enjoy it while I can. Kim, Grandma, and Grandpa joined us there.

It was fun hearing the people in the restaurant congratulate the Squad as they ate (some people driving by LBHS while we were taking pictures did so as well). Us old people remember this moment from our own lives – the excitement of it, the looking forward to the next stage that happened however long ago, the being glad that high school was over even if we were lucky enough to have managed to have a good time while we were there – and it’s nice to share that with the next generation. People can be good, when they want to be.

Eventually we headed over to the football field where they hold these things. I’m glad that they could actually have this ceremony this year. Rituals matter, no matter how odd they feel at the time.

They did make some changes to the ceremony from when Oliver and Fran graduated back in 2018, though, mostly to account for the lingering effects of the pandemic. Rather than putting all of the audience on one side of the football field and having the graduates face the middle, with a stage facing back to the sideline, they oriented the graduates lengthwise along the field, put the stage at about the goal line, and divided everyone up by alphabet so that half were on the Home side of the field and half on the Visitor’s side. It spread things out nicely, and you didn’t have to squeeze into a seat like we did last time. Lauren ended up on the Visitor’s side, right up by the front, so that’s where I sat.

Not long after we got there the band started playing. They put them off in a corner and just let them play as people filtered in. I don’t know what they’re going to do next year for a drumline, as most of Lauren’s compatriots were wearing graduation gowns, but I suppose that’s just one of the things that high school band teachers are used to working around. Eventually they stopped and the graduates disappeared to get in line for their entrance, and then the band struck up Pomp and Circumstance because that’s what you play in this situation, and the graduating class of 2021 marched in.

There were a lot of them. The band vamped on that tune for quite some time.

Say one thing about the LBHS administration, say that they understand what people are looking for in these ceremonies. They want a bit of ceremony. They want to see their kids and their kids' friends Do The Thing. And then they want to leave. LBHS is very good at keeping events concise, and I for one applaud them.

There was a short welcome speech by Aly, one of the Squad. It was a lovely speech and when she took out her camera to take pictures of the assembled crew we all applauded.

There was a choral number (you didn’t know Bridge Over Troubled Water was a gospel tune, did you, but now you do) and a handful of short student speeches. The principal got up and congratulated everyone.

And then they called each and every student up by name to receive their diploma, which I think is a wonderful thing. Those kids have worked very hard to get to this point and they’ve done so through the worst pandemic of the last century, and they deserve to be recognized individually. They move along at speed, but they all get to hear their name called and walk across the stage. They get a snazzy little diploma case and a handshake, and then they walk off the stage, get their picture taken, go to little table where someone will hand them their actual diploma, and then go back to their seats.

A few congratulatory words later, and then it’s over and the celebrating begins.

They don’t bother trying to orchestrate any recessional at these things – I can’t imagine that ending well, to be honest – so once the ceremony ends you’re free to mill around, catch up to your graduates and their friends, and generally have a good time.

Eventually we all gathered for a bit at one end of the stands for a couple of family photos.

Congratulations, Lauren! I’m proud of you.

Oh, the places you will go.