I fully expect all graduations to be mind numbing. It’s part of the deal.
@JenJenJenJen, my D17&19’s school doesn’t bring in guest speakers, but every graduate who wishes to speak gets to (plus the principal, one parent, and one teacher), so they pad it out to normal levels of boring time anyway.
@JenJenJenJen no outside speakers. Head of school speaks and a few other faculty. Class co-presidents each speak but they are the only student speakers. A few top awards are handed out, cum laude honor society students are acknowledged (en masse) then kids get their diploma.
Chiming in late after a weekend of grad festivities. Our graduation was amazing and I’m so proud of all the kids. The Val and Sal showed wonderful strength and maturity with their brief but humorous and thoughtful speeches; the student leaders who had various roles were genuine, well-prepared and well spoken. Our principal was actually dynamic and motivating to these kids. The event venue for the ceremony was perfect in size (not too big, not too small) and it didn’t take too long. We left feeling like our kids had been very much celebrated and congratulated.
Our weather has been dicey all weekend. The only thing I would’ve changed is instead of going out to eat (we ended up waiting over an hour), I wish we would’ve catered in some local BBQ and just hung out at home.
Son17 graduated yesterday and it went well. I couldn’t believe how many people were there and what a big ordeal it was. It was so big it was kind of impersonal and maybe that was a good thing. We sat kind of in the back and it was hard to see the kids and really focus on everything that was going on. They had a few kid speakers who were OK, not great. Their class advisors gave a nice combo speech and the kids enjoyed it, they used lots of local slang and inside jokes etc. A group of kids played a rock song and sang together and that was cool. Then the kids got their diplomas and son17 said let’s head on out. He was so done with all of the stuff going on at school lately that he was just happy to leave without a lot of drama. We took a few pics and bolted.
Came home and had a little family gathering for him and that was it. Sort of underwhelming. Not that I’m complaining, everything went off as planned, and there was very little emotional drain. I thought my wife and I would be more sad, but it just never got to that. It was a good day and son17 seems content. He has been going to some parties the last few days and we have a big party to go to this weekend in town where a lot of his good friends will be.
That will be a lot of fun and we are all looking forward to it.
Funniest part of the day yesterday was opening a few gifts and cards from relatives. Son would open the gift and say thanks and take a photo. We ate cake and brownies and celebrated. After that son17 pulls me aside and seeks my advice. He tells me his grandmother must have made a mistake on his gift. He showed me a check she had written for son17 and he couldn’t believe that she had meant to give him that much $$. Surely there must have been a mistake! I thought he was going to pass out, ha. It wasn’t even all that much really, but to a kid it must’ve felt like he won the lottery. He just couldn’t believe it. :)) It was cute.
@RightCoaster Does he know how expensive London is? Tell him Grandma is treating him to a EPL match and beers/food before and after 
Congrats to those who have graduates & to the grads themselves. No outside speakers at our HS - Val & Sal (my son - hoping he does a short, modest/grateful speech with a little humor), principal, District admin, a teacher voted on by students. It will be outside - is a little over 2 weeks away still.
@dolemite, yes the money won’t get him all that far in London. I didn’t have the heart to tell him though and let him rejoice in his feeling of wealth ( it will be a temporary feeling for sure). He will be depressed soon enough when he has to buy his own stuff in a few months
@RightCoaster My D17 had the EXACT same experience with a check from my parents!! Hahaha! But this is what happens when the gifts throughout the years have historically been subscriptions to magazines, and donations in her name to various nonprofits.
Graduation was yesterday - ceremony was okay. No outside speakers - principal, superintendent & one student (one of the class officers). Truly don’t remember much of the speeches, although the superintendent was actually entertaining. DD had All Night Grad Party & got home at 5 am - then we left at 7:30 to go to college orientation as today was the only day out of all of them that worked with her schedule. I had to nudge her a few times to wake her up during some of the boring parts.
On the plus side, her dual enrollment got her out of some unexpected classes & she’s quite happy with her schedule. It helped that her & I sat down Saturday & reviewed what she needed & created a schedule for her. They did make some tweaks to it, but overall she’s quite happy with her schedule. #:-S
I had a chance to read thru the graduation publication that the kids put together. It lists where the kids are going next year and fun facts from their high school years. Pretty well done!
I am a bit surprised with the number of kids going to less than “prestigious” schools. I don’t mean this in a bad way, I think it reflects on people choosing affordability over “wow factor”. Our public HS produces some pretty competitive kids I think, and there were lots of kids going to selective schools such as Stanford, 3 to Cornell, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Penn,Brown, etc. There were a decent amount of kids going to schools like U Mich, UVA, Johns Hopkins, NYU, BU,Tufts,RPI, but it just seemed the majority of kids chose to go a variety of schools that were less cut throat and offered a variety of majors perhaps at a cheaper price.
Our school is comprised of 2 towns that form a regional school. The town that I live in has a higher number of top income earners and much higher property values than the other town. Not surprisingly it seems that more kids from our town seem to end up at private institutions vs the kids from the other town choosing more cost friendly options.
My son will be attending Northeastern and the kids going there from our school were very good students, head of DECA, head of Robotics, Comp Science team captain etc. I think there were 9 kids that ended up choosing NEU, 3 business kids including my son, and the rest were all computer science I think.
It was a very interesting read and it was eye opening. I liked to see where all of the kids were headed.
On a separate note, last night my younger son19 was invited to a rising students awards night ( he got a minor award for doing well in a subject) and it was great for him to see what some of the older kids had accomplished. They gave out the Book awards, RPI medalist, and some other awards. A few of the kids really cleaned up on awards night, multiple awards- very accomplished kids. Son19 better get his act together fast!
I see an increasing number of top kids each year graduating from top rated suburban high schools heading to state flagships (Ohio State here) and other state schools and some OOS schools offering merit. Cost of private schools isn’t justified to an increasing number of kids. As college costs continue to rise, I expect that trend to continue.
There are 26,407 high schools in the US. Most don’t even send ONE kid to the Ivy’s
The most popular Ivy at S’s high school is usually Cornell - either for a sport or for the land grant tuition benefit.
@rightcoaster the student who was Val and won top academic achievement award at DS’s school will be attending Northeastern. I’m sure he had many wonderful choices, so it speaks to the draw that NEU has these days for top students.
We are on day 3 of rain here in the northeast with temps consistently below 50 degrees. Thankfully, LAX playoff game scheduled for today (on a grass field) is postponed until tomorrow.
DH just bought DS a suit for internship interviews. It’s a nice suit, but it’s navy which I don’t like for interviews. Opinions? Is a navy suit with brown shoes okay or would dark gray with black shoes be better? DD15 got a black suit but wears it with a cream colored top and nude shoes to lighten it up.
Apparently they start interviewing for summer positions in the fall of their freshman year. If he does score a job, I hope it is close to home so he won’t have to pay for housing and can save lots of $$! I’m not sure my son will be happy at an office job for 40+ hours a week during the summer when he’s used to being outdoors as a camp counselor. I am going to suggest he look for a position that is more hands-on than behind a desk. I would even be okay if he decided to go back and be a counselor or take a local non-professional job for one last summer.
This brings to mind a QOTD - what do you think your DC will be doing next summer?
QOTD: Hopefully SURFing – which at his college is a summer research program.
QOTD- same thing she does every summer. Work.
I think a navy suit with brown shoes will be fine. Good chance the people he will be meeting will not be wearing suits (or even ties for that matter).
@jmek15 I’ve owned mostly blue suits throughout my life and I got some jobs and turned out sort of OK
Blue suit,brown shoes and belt and a nice shirt and tie looks nice and is not offensive.
Your QOTD: No idea. I’m hoping he can figure that out when he gets back from London. Some sort of job or internship.
Good luck in lax game tomorrow!
@jmek15 Navy suit with brown shoes is perfectly fine. Make sure the belt matches the shoes. Either a white or light blue shirt, and a neutral tie. No fancy stuff, in my opinion - avoid cuff links and pocket squares.
ETA: I’m suggesting my S (engineering) wear a navy blazer, beige slacks, black shoes and belt, white shirt and neutral tie. Simple…the attention should be on him and not his clothes (good or bad).