Well.
Mine was a little bit weird because I was homeschooled back in the early days of homeschooling life.
My parents ordered a diploma for me, but it was rather unofficial. I actually took the GED test just so that I had an actual official high school graduation record.
(I thought the GED was massively easy compared to the SAT. So, doing the SAT and then the GED is perfect. The GED is a pleasant surprise that way!)
To celebrate my graduation, we had a small ceremony in my parents’ backyard on the deck by the pool.
That same weekend, I had my senior piano recital, and I think both sets of my grandparents came out from Iowa/South Dakota for the two events.
And I know this photo, which I’ve used here before many times, was taken the night of my senior recital.
So. I have never had a cap-and-gown graduation before.
Which means that if I go to nursing school, my graduation from that program will be my first official graduation ceremony.
Standard cap and gown with the addition of a baccalaureate mass, because I went to a Catholic high school. And then my family took me to lunch at an outdoor tea room, which was lovely but it was HOOOOOT, because it was late May in Tucson, Arizona. My mom’s parents were there, and they gave me a nice pair of diamond stud earrings. I remember my grandmother, who was Very Southern and also very into large, flashy jewelry, apologizing that they couldn’t afford bigger diamonds. 🙂 One of those earrings was lost just about a year ago when I was leaning over the seat in our giant van on a road trip and my ear scraped against the seat while I was wrestling with a child’s seat belt or something. My parents gave me a new pair for Christmas, but I was still sad that I lost the pair my now-deceased grandparents gave me.
Oh, that is so sad about the earring! But I’m glad you got a new pair.
Super boring, except that my class selected our math teacher as speaker, and oh, I loved that man. We also had a baccalaureate — public school and therefore optional, but everyone went anyway; the son of the pastor at that church was in our class, and although the churches (26 at the time in a town of 10,000) rotated, they definitely planned it that way.
My mom’s whole family came, which was unusual because they were/are farmers and had to feed cattle, drive 5 hours, watch a hot/boring/long ceremony, eat, and then go back to feed cattle.
Analysis: It was a good day, but I don’t want to do it over. I’m happy in my 40s in a way I wasn’t happy at 18. Internal joy makes all the difference.
I went to a very small private Christian school in a very rural Appalachian area….no town. I was one of three in my class so our ceremony had alot of individuality. Each of us gave a speech & I was valedictorian….which doesn’t say much with only three of us!
Oh, & my ‘official’ graduation pictures were taken in the local grocery store. Back then photographers would set up to take baby/children pictures in local stores. And that’s where I went to have my graduation pictures taken for the yearbook. Hilarious….it was as embarrassing as it sounds….standing in line (in my cap & gown) with preschoolers & their moms.
I went to a boarding school for 20 kids, so only three in my graduating class. You had to be able to speak a very obscure Eastern European language to attend, as that was the language used to teach classes; all of us were children of immigrants and most of our parents had either been in concentration camps or displaced persons camps before gaining admission to the U.S. Because the nuns also came from the same backgrounds as our parents, there was a big emphasis on being able to survive if the entire world fell apart. Before you graduated, you had to know how to weave cloth, raise food in a garden and butcher a pig. And the constant mantra was that our parents survived while so many others were slaughtered, so if we didn’t use all the opportunities afforded by the U.S., then someone else should have survived instead because we were just wasting space. The nuns had a lovely sit down dinner that all 20 students attended and handed out the diplomas afterwards. What I remember most about my graduation had nothing to do with the ceremony: the night before I chopped off my waist length hair to almost a pixie cut, to the horror of my father and the nuns.
Wow, amazing. I’m pretty sure no one can top that comment! What an experience! This is why I like these prompts because even when they seem mundane, you get fascinating stories.
Agree!
Wow, that’s some very bold timing for a very bold haircut!
Standard high school graduation here. I am really commenting to ask Kristin if she could have a pendant made out of her remaining diamond earring to wear as a necklace if she wanted.
Lindsey, whoa.
I wish I could. I should have added that the second one got lost during the trip we were on our way to when I lost the first one in the car. I had put the remaining earring in the zippered pocket of my wallet. I discovered after the fact that the pocket had a small hole in one corner. Boo.
Mine was exciting at the actual ceremony. We had close to 800 graduating, and I was in the top 100. My mother, a couple of older sisters and their families, and my boyfriend cheered me on. My mother planned NOTHING to follow and I remember my older sisters were appalled. They picked up a couple of buckets of chicken for afterwards and I stayed just long enough to eat and open my gift – a very cheap Timex watch – then headed out on a date with said boyfriend. So the rest of the evening was anti-climactic but I do remember feeling proud and thrilled that high school was over and college was about to begin. (:
Mine was typical public school graduation. We only got two tickets because our class was so big, but excess family members were welcome to sit on the bleachers (we graduated in the gym.) I wound up with about a dozen family members attending. By my recollection, it was hot, boring, and way too long. After the ceremony, we all went to the nicest restaurant in town for a fancy lunch. After that my boyfriend and parents went back to work, the other relatives went home and I went home alone. I distinctly remember a feeling of emptiness and “what now?” even though I was already taking college courses and had a part-time job.
I’m in the U.K. and high school graduation isn’t (well wasn’t in the 80s) a thing. 😢😢😢
Wow, I had no idea. You just…finished high school without a ceremony, and that it was off to college for you?