Making your Dash Count

Not about Sarah- Graduation May 18, 2006

So many people have commented about how hard graduation must be for us this year.  Overall, graduation is just one more event where we miss Sarah. The difference between this and other events, however; is exclusion. This is everyone else’s and no longer ours. Don’t get me wrong. I am not at all spite filled about that.  I am thrilled for each and every graduate. Sarah’s friends have grown into wonderful young adults, with nothing but a universe of opportunity ahead. But there is a total disconnect with the fact that they are even old enough to graduate, since Sarah will forever be a bubbly junior in high school. Her friends have grown beyond her; I will miss them next year.

This is the first time for me that I truly have felt as though time has stood still and left us behind.  I am totally jealous of all the parents who will fill Germain Ampitheater two Saturdays from now.  We will stay far away; I am not even sure yet whether we will watch it on TV. Graduation is the time for joy and hope, not mourning. 

Instead, we will gather with family in Minnesota and celebrate our (national merit finalist) nephew’s graduation from home schooling to Luther College and will go to Texas to celebrate Air Force Boot Camp graduation for Ashley R.,a friend of Sarah's who has set her sight on the skies.

Knowing many of this years grads since Kindergarten, I take pride in the people they have become and the plans they are making. They are GREAT kids who will make GREAT adults. I look forward to watching how they live and fulfill their dash.