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On Angels and Messengers

Sunday, May 16, 2010

DAD'S REFLECTIONS on GRADUATION DAY*

*Note: This is from Dad's journal for June 1996.

We did it!
We graduated from High School today,
Student and parents, too:
A rite of passage for all three of us.
No more sleepy mornings
watching for the bus
as the smell of burning Poptarts fills the kitchen.
No more baloney sandwiches,
lovingly made in 30 seconds,
then forgotten just as quickly.
The chant of "Snow day, Snow day"
and the groans when it wasn't.
Countless parent-teacher conferences
with all the same questions
and the same lack of answers.
All the homework assignments
that never made it to school
and all the notes that never made it home.
The book bag that got dropped
in that spot by the door,
where it lay undisturbed
until someone gave the morning warning cry:
"Bus on the back road!"
The occasional disagreements
about how sick is too sick to go to school.
The roller-coaster report cards;
always getting by in the end.
Reaching past the exasperation
to find some more encouragement.
The winless debates about:
"Why do I have to do all this crap?"
The work, the worries,
the disappointments, the celebrations --
and now the pride.

We did it!

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