Parents of Class of 2018 thread

[mrsv98]

I don’t see anything?

D'oh! She graduated with high honors and received a cool medal to wear with her AP cords. We didn't know until she brought it home from rehearsal. Very proud ☺

 

[StephMK]

DD graduated Sat and had her party Sunday night. She is enjoying being out while her brother has had school this week! This Saturday she will go to CA with her school choir and can’t wait to visit Disneyland.

We have orientation in a few weeks, a beach trip, then a few weeks at home until she leaves. Ack!

 

[mommy2mrb]

DD Baccalaureate is tonight. Graduation tomorrow!

Been a crazy week! Finally seeing the end of packing. Just 4 days until movers come.

Going for hair and nail appts today. Looking forward to some pampering.

DD spent night with 8 of her school girl friends. Happy they have this time together before they scatter all over the country for college.

 

[clori]

We had senior awards night Tuesday. DD received 3 scholarships. She also got her US Figure Skating Certificate officially presented to her. Today she is at a grad meeting then a BBQ right after. Tomorrow she has graduation practice and graduates Sunday.

Our graduation doesn't have all the stoles, cords etc. The only one is National Honor Society. I did get permission for dd to wear her dual enrollment college national honor society stole which is the same color. I believe only our val/sal are acknowledged and perhaps class officers. We found out at awards night since final grades were complete for seniors. All students going into the military stand up in their seats and are applauded. Other than that it is the same - the school's belief is all students are individuals who all come together to form the graduating class.

My 8th grader finishes on June 21st at 11. Her "graduation" is June 20th at night. My dd's college orientation is also June 20th to 21st so I'm only going to 4. There is no orientation schedule out yet so hopefully student/parent activities aren't taking place after that.

DD may find out her job assignment soon for her summer job but as of now it is a mystery. It is a city summer job which is perfect for this summer.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My Daughter graduated on May 23rd. Everyone was worried because of the rain - the ceremony is outside in the school football stadium.

While the ground was soaking wet, they were still able to do the graduation thankfully. And it didn't rain on any of us during the long ceremony - 838 students graduated. Add in all the speeches and it was a 3 1/2 hour ceremony. I was so thankful that she is our last graduating High School.

Parking was a nightmare - we ended up parking in a neighborhood about 3/4 of a mile away from the school and walking to the stadium.

The overnight lock in at Dave and Busters was pretty empty - only about 20 students DD said and only 4 girls. I remember when my son did it, it was very packed. I bet this will be the last year for that. I know alot of folks weren't letting their kids do it because they didn't want the students to be away from families overnight when many had family members who traveled here for their graduation.

She is thrilled to be done with High School and has been hanging out with friends for the past week. She has college orientation in a couple of weeks and then can relax and enjoy the summer more.

 

[mommy2mrb]

My girl graduated tonight! So proud! She was awarded the Theology Department service award!hard to believe HS is over.

 

[clori]

Graduation yesterday started out interesting. There was a argument near where I was sitting about people standing near the fence when grads started marching in blocking the view of people sitting in the stands. It started to get a little extreme. Police were called. Fortunately someone got the people to settle down before police got there. The rest was fine.

I was happily surprised that dd got a scholarship at graduation. I thought they were all given out at senior night but they gave out 30 alumni scholarships at graduation. We had our party right afterwards for both dd and my nephew.

 

[Kellydelly]

Our lil miss is all done with her school days, yesterday was her last day of school.
Our seniors are done 10 days ahead of the other grades, in order to give the teachers time for official grades and the results from the AP testing to come back.

She only had 2 AP test this year and was exempt from her other classes, they either didn't have EOC or her grades exempt her.

We finally received our order of the official graduation announcements and wow, I pretty much feel stiffed on that. The are super generic, plain basic black font on a folded white paper. They don't even say Class of 2018....no color, $65 for 25 of them without the name cards. Of course we only needed about 10 for the official ceremony. I wish I could have gotten a hold of one, scanned it and just printed copies off at Office Depot.
When our boys graduate, I'm going to ask some other parents to pool together on a order, because we each only need less than 10 each.

Another decision that DD school alone has come out with is cords, stoles, honors etc. I am a little miffed about it. It is not school district policy only her school alone, has decided that each student will only receive and be allowed to wear ONE cord regardless of how many majors they earned. period. AND every single student will get a cord regardless, so they all look the same ! DD worked very hard for 2 majors and became ServeSafe certified, which if she attended any other HS in the district, she would get cords for.


They refuse the give the kids their cords and stoles until the required mandatory practice, which isn't until the day before. so if there is problem with your stole, it'll be too late and too bad.....also no recognition's for cum laude, summa or gamma, nor any Valedictorian, etc.

How can they not let the kids with the honors sashes and cords get the recognition they deserve? At my daughter's school only 46% of the students graduated with cum laude or better GPAs. I think the kids who worked hard for their designations should be able to show them off!

 

[mnrose]

We had our grad party on Sunday, which was a whirlwind. I felt like I talked to people for two minutes each, and then it was on to the next guest. It was exhausting. Our formal grad ceremony is Friday night. My son is graduating with high honors and refuses to purchase any of the additional cords/ribbons etc he's entitled to wear (we have to pay for them here). He says it's (and I quote) "stupid." LOL. Heck, I'm actually grateful that he's decided to participate at all. There was a question for some time whether he'd even bother. He has SOOOOOOO moved on from high school, and doesn't care one bit about any of the hoopla. He now has two years of college credit under his belt (between AP and this last year of 100% college classes) so I get his point of view. My daughter is proudly wearing the honors stuff she earned. So, grad Friday night.

Wed and Thursday my son attends a two day "freshman orientation/registration" program at the U of Minnesota. Again, it's pretty much of no interest to him because he's been at the U for an entire year already. Not sure he's going to get much out of the campus tour, etc. But, he has to go to register. Hoping he gets all the classes he wants!

Next Monday, my exchange student and my daughter fly off to Berlin. My daughter is spending most of the summer there, before returning two weeks before she leaves for college.

I am surprisingly non-emotional about the whole thing so far. We'll see how I am on Monday night.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Graduation yesterday started out interesting. There was a argument near where I was sitting about people standing near the fence when grads started marching in blocking the view of people sitting in the stands. It started to get a little extreme. Police were called. Fortunately someone got the people to settle down before police got there. The rest was fine.

I was happily surprised that dd got a scholarship at graduation. I thought they were all given out at senior night but they gave out 30 alumni scholarships at graduation. We had our party right afterwards for both dd and my nephew.

Congrats on your DD getting a scholarship.

We had that issue too - people standing up at the fence blocking everyones view too - folks started shouting and security came over and made them move.
We also had an airhorn issue. Those weren't allowed but a group near us was drunk (one fellow fell down the stairs) and kept pulling 2 out. They had water bottles filled with liquor. They were talking about it.
I grabbed one airhorn when it was dropped and kept it hidden and they were too drunk to figure out where it went. The security guard kept coming to our area and never did find the other one because they kept it hidden except when they used it which was often. I even pointed them out to the guard but it didn't help. I was thrilled when they left.
The guard had several airhorn's that he'd taken away from folks so I'm glad he got some of them.

Thankfully our daughter was near the front of the graduation ceremony because she graduated with honors and that family had no one with honors so other than being obnoxious and laughing once in a while I could hear our daughters name called.

 

[Kellydelly]

I am surprised your son is going to let his sister look smarter than him! Are they twins? I have 14 yr old twins. I think he should get his cords and sash and wear them with pride . Not that they need to match, but it really is something to be able to wear all those things.

We had our grad party on Sunday, which was a whirlwind. I felt like I talked to people for two minutes each, and then it was on to the next guest. It was exhausting. Our formal grad ceremony is Friday night. My son is graduating with high honors and refuses to purchase any of the additional cords/ribbons etc he's entitled to wear (we have to pay for them here). He says it's (and I quote) "stupid." LOL. Heck, I'm actually grateful that he's decided to participate at all. There was a question for some time whether he'd even bother. He has SOOOOOOO moved on from high school, and doesn't care one bit about any of the hoopla. He now has two years of college credit under his belt (between AP and this last year of 100% college classes) so I get his point of view. My daughter is proudly wearing the honors stuff she earned. So, grad Friday night.

 

[StephMK]

Congrats to all the graduates and families!! Not letting kids wear what honors they have earned seems like overkill in having everyone the same. Kids that work for it should be able to publically celebrate that. That’s terrible about the behaviors and who drinks alcohol at a HS graduation?!

DD’s school had a mention in the program and an announcement that it was a formal ceremony and no air horns, etc. They even did a bag check on the way in and I still heard them 3 times. It should be such an easy expectation to follow.

DD is in CA this week so we’re getting a sneak peek into life when she leaves. DS agreed it’s a little boring but peaceful. We go to orientation in 2 weeks and I’m getting excited. We’ve been to that city but the college wasn’t on her radar while there. We have never actually been on campus!

 

[Mickeypooh99]

My DS wore his stole, sash and cords. He refused to wear the medals. I thought it did seem a little much. Then at graduation all the other kids were wearing the medals so I kind of wish he had worn them. I guess it wasn't a huge deal. Some kids had a bright red cord for donating over a certain amount of blood! That was interesting.

What is up with rude people at graduation!? We had an announcement about no yelling, air horns, or cow bells etc... Some people just don't think the rules apply to them. We had a group in front of us who were obnoxious, and they must have known half the graduates. Or maybe they just liked yelling.

My son is on a plane to Spain right now. I'm so nervous. He's never traveled without us other than scout camping. It's his first time out of the country. (except for Canada) Of course he's not worried at all. I'm tracking the flight online.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I figured out the picture! This was from our school website. He was giving his speech.

 

[DawnM]

My DD graduates on the 9th also. Are you in NC too? I feel like other southern states get out a week or two earlier (friends' DD in FL graduated today), and up north is weeks after - a friend from NY told me yesterday that her kids' prom is not for another month and then graduation is a week after that!!

Yes, in NC.

 

[DawnM]

Well, I think I win for best parent award right now. Apparently when my son goes to Orientation June 24 and 25, the parents are supposed to go too and go to parent orientation. Um, I will be in Seattle......NOT in NC, so, um, not going.

AND, my son was supposed to have signed up for "sessions" at orientation......didn't do that either......and a lot of them are apparently filled up now, like, you know, the ones he actually wants and pertain to his major.

Sigh.......

 

[clori]

DD told me that they get their various cords (senior awards are today), but she thinks they must wear them at graduation UNDER their gowns so everyone looks uniform....

We simply don't have all these honor programs - we have national honor society and they just started a history honor society so a few kids had cords - your allowed to wear them but those are the only 2 school sponsored stole/cords/medals that exist plus since the dual enrollment program is part of high school I got permission for dd to wear her dual enrollment NHS stole from college. However some people wore special blessing scarves etc so the sameness thing made no sense to me.

Thankfully our daughter was near the front of the graduation ceremony because she graduated with honors and that family had no one with honors so other than being obnoxious and laughing once in a while I could hear our daughters name called.

- My daughter was in the second row - we had about 450 grads and by the 50th person I would say people were leaving left and right making ith it hard to hear/see some grads. I found it annoying even though my own dd was done

 

[NAB]

Congrats to all the grads.

We are getting ready for Prom tomorrow night. Don't know how many times she has put on that dress....lol

We live in Canada, our school has no special cords , rewards are usually money so they are given the same night as they walk across the stage they will say what the award was for but not what is in the envelope that is handed to them. Since it is a Catholic school they can earn a Christian Living metal that goes around the neck and a gold/yellow stole for Honour Roll.

Graduation is June 28.

We had to pick our school by June 1st. She didn't get her first pick but got one that was associated with her number#1 . Same degree and walk at the bigger school when you graduate. Thought we had it all sorted out until the wait listed one came in now she doesn't know....so stressful because if we wait to long she isn't going to have a place to live at either one. This wait listed is at the big school but same program at a smaller community college. McMaster/Conestoga/Mohawk. She got into the last too , big campus is McMaster.

 

[VictoriaT]

Congratulations to all of your graduates and all you parents! I am glad all the high school stuff is done! DS had Honors convocation May 16, then Senior walkout May 23, prom May 24, graduation mass June 3, graduation June 6 with all night party afterwards, and track and field banquet last night. Time to breathe! I am happy we managed to get a decent family photo taken after the ceremony, even though it was 9:30pm.



He still has not gotten a summer job yet, which is a bit irritating. Anyone else feel their child has a little bit of an attitude lately?
It seems to be the I'm an adult now, I can do what I want. Argh! I love him dearly, but am ready to ship him out for an attitude adjustment!

 

[Kellydelly]

Well now that she is graduated and EVERYTHING high school should be in the bag, I am finding that my kid still is trying to act too busy and not help around the house. But, she did land two jobs yesterday. One is at Rite Aid, and the other is as a lunch aid at a special needs school in our neighborhood. The lunch aid one is perfect (if she can handle it). It pays $11 an hour and the hours are 8-2 if she wants, or just 11-1. Monday through Thursday. I think I want to work there! I would not want to work at Rite Aid as a clerk but maybe it's easier than I think. I guess she will find out. She should be able to earn enough money to buy her textbooks for college. That would be nice! She also needs a cheerleader skirt for tailgating, lol. She is buying that herself!