Our school has two student speakers and tells them 3 to 3.5 minutes please.
@STEM2017 Of course! No football tickets would make for a very unhappy kiddo here.
Nothing else to do at graduation? Print these free BINGO cards and have fun with friends and family…
At my kids’ school, anybody who’s graduating can speak for up to 3 minutes, as long as they submit it for approval by 31 March. Out of D17’s graduating class of 27, 10 spoke.
@MotherOfDragons No SLRs? Seriously? I would boycott.
Speeches - at D’s school, kids are nominated by teachers or peers and then audition if they are interested. The school doesn’t rank so there’s no val/sal.
@LoveTheBard Thanks for the well wishes!
Made it through Senior Night for lax team. Boys have rallied hard the last few weeks and last night they won again so they’ll make the playoffs. Son was happy about that. He was worried the team may not finish the season on a positive note, but they’e turned it around and all is good. It was a nice night, good game, and my son was friends with a group of guys on the opposing team ( played on a club team together), so it was a fun night.
Had a chance to look thru my son’s yearbook this morning and a lot of kids wrote some nice things to my son, so I am sure that made him feel good. I’ll admit I got a little teary eyed reading some of the notes.
@5redheads I’m going to have to look into those bingo cards. It may be a lonnnnnggggggg day.
@RightCoaster congrats on making it to the playoffs!!! That’s wonderful.
@MotherOfDragons Off to D21’s middle school graduation and I have two, count them two, DSLRs in my bag (one is my dad’s). Plus a huge zoom lens. I am ready!
^^We have to go through a metal detector to get into the venue, or else I’d be stowing the camera body and lenses all over my body :-"
It’s ok, I’ll take all the beautiful pics before we leave-it’s in a gigantic arena, so even if I brought the telephoto lens it’d be taking pictures of my D looking bored from very far away, lol.
@LoveTheBard I want to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival some day. We have an excellent summer theater 45 minutes from our home, though, so we get our Shakespeare fix there and always seem to opt for other things when we’re in Oregon. A few years ago we did go to the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. If you haven’t been there, I think you and your D would really enjoy it. They have 4 indoor theaters and have several plays and musicals running simultaneously. Several Shakespeare offerings, but lots of variety. Season runs from late spring to early fall, I think.
My first graduation I attended as a junior (in the concert band) for the seniors at my high school. The speaker was Ronald McNair - astronaut that died in the Challenger explosion. Best speech I ever heard and it was a bit long.
@NolaCAR, the Stratford, Ontario festival is on my bucket list. Maybe it will actually happen since we’ll be empty nesters. I visited Stratford-upon-Avon years ago and loved it. It’s always a Bard festival there!
Final call for any more changes or updates to “the list.” If you’ve already posted I have noted your comment. Hope to turn that around later today or tomorrow.
Idk why I though things would calm down once graduation was over, because my to-do list is growing by the minute!
@5redheads I may have to modify one square on the card to read “Principal walks onto stage in flip flops.” Although we have a different principal than 2 years ago, so I think it’s more unlikely this time.
No restrictions on cameras for us. But the theater is large enough and dark enough that pictures from the seats wouldn’t be worth anything. School has a photographer who takes picture of each kid as they accept their diploma and then takes another one back stage with it in hand. I think it was like $10 or $15 to buy one (you could also add a full class picture taken from the balcony for additional cost). Was worth it to me for my son not to have to worry about getting a picture at the right time or being in the right place. Also took pictures outside the theater with parents, grandparents, siblings, etc. Daughter will be in front row which will help her aging grandparents see her during the ceremony. Otherwise the rest of the class can only be seen as they walk in and walk across the stage to get their diplomas.
@Jmek, that is a snazzy avatar, I like it.
Why thank you, @Rightcoaster. I think it’s pretty nifty, too. Credit goes to @MotherOfDragons.
@saillakeerie – unless it rains, our grad is outside. I lugged my heavy camera and took great family shots after the ceremony, but it was well worth paying for the two pro shots snapped of my son walking in and receiving diploma. Of course, I have no idea where those are now.
@NolaCAR and @jmek15 - The Stratford (Ontario) festival is definitely on the list (as are Stratford-upon-Avon and London’s Globe.
In San Diego we have a summer Shakespeare Festival that generally has two Shakespeare plays, usually in the outdoor theatre, a period piece, and a musical. They used to be in repertory, but now they have shorter runs.
If you like Shakespeare and want a great TV series to binge watch, check out “Slings and Arrows.” It was a Canadian Broadcasting Company show that ran for three seasons about a theatre company with a sort of Life Imitates Art theme. Many of the actors – and the writer – were from the Stratford Festival. The seasons’ main story revolved around the plays being produced (Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear). Despite the heaviness of the plays, the show is pretty funny and you learn a lot about the plays from a director’s and actors’ points of view. Best. TV. Ever.
Football tickets will come complements of the marching band, provided she passes her audition. She has to change from flute to piccolo so she has some practice to do.
Graduation was yesterday and there were two speeches I will remember. They were both by friends of my D’s so I knew the kids and it seemed as they both referenced her in their speeches. One was about teen life and he compered what today’s teens are facing compared to teens 100, 200 and 300 years ago. He started out with how lighthearted today’s teens can be and when he talked about memes I know he referenced my D (voted “best memes in band” remember) who he follows online. He then changed course and talked about modern challenges like terrorism. He spoke about how the Pulse nightclub massacre affected him. He is openly gay and founded the GSA at the school. It was very moving and he made it very positive.
The other speech I will remember was made by my D’s best friend. She talked about her hopes and plans for college and beyond, then she paused and said “but what if I make a mistake.” It sounded like my D talking and it brought tears to my eyes. I do not if they are just that much alike, or it something she heard from her. I talked to my D afterward, she feels her greatest fear is making a mistake. She did not want to discuss why her friend spoke to this fear. Interestingly, the meme the other speaker mentioned was also about making mistakes. Some of these kids are just so close to perfect I think they do not realize they will make plenty of mistakes in life and it is how they recover that makes the real difference.
@LoveTheBard Did not realize you were a neighbor - for some reason I thought you were up in the Bay Area.