Survived Graduation: Dehydration Due to Excessive Crying....

[chochiyo_sama]

        There was a LOT of celebrating.....

 

And a lot of .....

 

 

...crying....

 

Especially from me.

It started at a little after 8 am in homeroom.  LS came in carrying two dozen peach colored roses for me.  Our eyes met and we both started bawling. 

Then she and AP had to go to the board room to meet with J and all the other seniors.  When they came back, I gave them their gifts.  I was really pleased with what I had bought for them--two glass candle holders with a wreath made of translucent blue beads and a blue candle taper.  I spent about $20 each, so I hoped they would like them, and they appeared to love them.

And then they cried.

And then *I* cried.

And then LS ran out of the room....heh heh heh....saying, "It's stoo early to start this!"

So I smelled my roses and sniffled.

She also gave me a little key ring with a purple butterfly on it...she knows how I love butterflies.  (Cho means butterfly, you know?)  And, ironically, the butterfly was the exact shade of purple as my dress.  Well.  That set me off again.

We were all laughing and crying.

Then at 9 a.m., the seniors and the two juniors selected from my room went to the Field House at the junior college to decorate for graduation.

We kept the rest of the kids busy until 10:30, when we dismissed them to get something to eat and get themselves over to the field house before noon...which is when the ceremony started.

My homeroom had 100% attendance, for which I was proud and pleased.

CR was a dickass and didn't get his reviews done.  He annoyed the shit out of me because he pissed around all quarter.  He carried The Outsiders around with him for the whole quarter and NEVER FINISHED IT.  I nailed on him a bit today, saying, "Jeez, C, its a 100 page book.  If you read three pages a day, you'd have finished it a month ago!  I read that book when I was in seventh grade--in THREE HOURS."

C's a good boy, and I love him, but dammit, he relies on his charm to get him through life...and charm is nice but it is no replacement for responsibility and effort.  Charm might get him a job--but it ain't gonna keep him a job.

I may fail him....at best, he'll get a D-.

Little shit.

I HATE failing my kids, but he truly does deserve it.

JP was a dolt.  First off, he showed up half an hour late.  He's already on extremely shaky ground and will probably not be back first quarter.  And he has no one to blame but himself.  And his irresponsible mom is also to blame.

Ah, well.

Back to graduation.

It was so much nicer at the field house than the Civic Center.  There were bleachers, so everyone could see.

The kids were so beautiful when they came marching in to pomp and circumstance.

They were all smiling--proud and sheepish at the same time.

The mayor came.  He is a great supporter of R.O.C.

The kids treat him like a grandpa.

heheheheh

He LOVES it.

I had to give the welcome after that and almost did the whole BOO HOO HOO thing right after stepping up to the microphone.

But, I remembered Lyndsey ordering me NOT TO CRY at the ceremony lest she be swept up too.

I think I did okay.

AH was the first student to give a speech, and she did an excellent job.  Then Jay read his traditional punkin poem--which I wish I had a copy of handy, so I could add it here.

Then he read his special poem for this year's seniors.

And he broke up.

I think it was Angie's fault--she was crying so hard. 

It was such a sweet moment because John A. left the chairs, stepped up on stage, and put his arm around Jay.  That gave Jay what he needed to finish reading the poem, in a broken and quavery voice.

It was a beautiful moment.  Though I am sure Jay was very embarrassed.

Then Jay and Kim M. (school board chair) presented the diplomas--and the kids passed through the line of teachers for their special congratulations from staff.

That's when it was horrible.

I hugged them all, and sobbed for about half of them.

Amanda and Lyndsey were the worst, because they are my own.

And so we clung to each other and sobbed and sobbed.  What babies we were.

Big, bad, tough Brady wouldn't meet anyone's eyes--if he would have, he'd have been lost.  He'd have blubbered like a baby and that wouldn't have been cool.

He's such a sweetie under all that macho bullshit.

hehehehe

At the very end, it was open mike for the graduating seniors.  They came up and gave their final thoughts.  No one cried as hard as Colin did last year--but they all were tearful--and every last one of them acknowledged the staff--and some did individual teachers as well.  Over and over again, they said, "If it were not for the teachers at R.O.C., I would not be standing here today.

Most of them also encouraged the underclassmen to love each other and do their best and to treat the staff with kindness and respect because no one cares more or works harder for them than we do--and their parents as well, of course.

Steve showed up almost at the end.  His dad is in terrible shape--pretty much he is in a coma.  When he comes out of it, he's hallucinating.  It's a matter of days, now.

Sigh.

I talked to him in the gym for a long time while the kids and their families and friends at cake in the reception hall.

I didn't get any cake--but I don't need any.  My ass is ample enough without it.

Lyndsey's mom invited me to come to lunch with them afterwards at Appleby's---then she insisted on buying my meal.

I met Lyndsey's dad--I was expecting a real asshole, since he basically abandoned the family and has not supported her or her brother since, leaving her mother, who is a SAINT, to raise them on her own.

He was actually nice and funny.  And I must say quite good looking.  His current wife was also very friendly and talkative.  They were at the restaurant when I got there, and Lyndsey and her mom came later.  I felt a little awkward with them at first, but we soon were chatting and joking.

Thank goodness I like to talk to people.  Heh heh

It saves me from a lot of awkwardness.

The meal went very well.  We had a nice time.

And when it was over, I drove home.  I even remembered to stop and give Patsy some catfood.  Then I watched the channel 10 news, since they had been at graduation.  I was on the screen briefly.  (Crying, of course).  And they said very nice things about our students and our school.

Angie H. gave a nice interview.  She talked about her addiction and how R.O.C. helped her stay on the right path after treatment.

My beautiful punkins.

How I will MISS them.  They were 10th graders when I came to R.O.C.  The first group I really KNEW.  Damn, it hurt to let them go.

But it was time.

And they will come back frequently and visit, they always do.

And Donna, Lyndsey's mom, said, "We're not going to let you go, just cuz Lyndsey is graduated!"

It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

((((MY KIDS))))

I am so proud of them all for getting the difficult task of graduating accomplished.  It would have been so easy for most of them to just sink into their addictions or other issues and use them as an excuse to do and be nothing.  But they met the difficulties and challenges and GOT IT DONE. 

"Get 'er done," was kind of the unofficial slogan of this year.

It was a hard year.

But we got her done!

One half day left.

AFter the half day, my homeroom wants to go to lunch, which is cool with me.

I love spending time with them.

Well, it is late.

Gotta go.

Oh, side note.

I BEAT PETER's ASS in scrabble tonight.  Twice.  By more than a hundred points both times.  I OWN his ass. hehehehehe

((((Peter)))))  Sooooooo Soorrrrrrryyyy.   heheheheeheh 

(NOt)

 

 

 

Comments

I just have to brag....

[(Anonymous)]

I went to toys 'r us the other night and bought a brand new scrabble board. The new one is so cool! It's got a board with little walls to keep the tiles from sliding around, and the board itself rotates, so that I don't have to try reading upside down (that allowed Marlise to get credit for "Neice"). It is a very nice set, and well worth the $30. I think the coolest part is that it comes with an immitation velvet bag for the letter tiles; no more difficulty trying to mix them up.

I never used to play board games, but this is one game I got addicted to in Iraq. You see, I was the fat rather unpopular soldier, who always had problems with something (usually involving stupid people in leadership positions). Anyway, scrabble was one thing I could whup their ass at... my dumbass sergeants were no match for someone who actually read for - get this - pleasure! The only real competition were the older sergeants, and they were fun to play with. SSG Cossey, SSG Decker, and the Platoon Sergeant Guevara all deserve a big thanks for making a war zone just a little bit fun.

~RM

Cool but....

[chochiyo-sama.livejournal.com]

Who told you you were fat?

I saw your picture--you look just right to me.

*I* am fat.

:P

The Army determines everything for you, didn't you know that?

[(Anonymous)]

I am 5'4, and the Army determines how much you should weigh from your height and age. When I went in, the Army said I should have weighed 134 lbs. And I did... but only on that day. After that rather starved incident, I could have lopped off a limb and still been considered overweight. The Army of course just gave me PT twice every day to try and work it off of me. It worked, too, cause I did manage to stay around 145, which was close to the requirement once I had aged a few years. But, I also have a 40% disability from the VA because all that exercise destroyed my joints. Go figure. Now, I'm back to being fat AND I'm broken.