“… the story continues to begin.”

My youngest granddaughter graduated from high school this past week. Some consider it an alternative school but that is not an accurate name for it because I think it is a model of what school needs to look like. I am impressed with the school, the faculty and staff.

This graduation ceremony was a tear jerker for me and I’ve wiped my eyes a couple times writing this post. Rather than have a guest speaker attempt to urge these young people on to more success (however you define success: money, power, popularity, career, or just attaining enough credits to graduate), each graduate stepped to the podium with two white roses and offered those roses to two people who helped make their graduation possible.

After saying who they wanted to give a rose to they stepped from stage and into the audience to give each one their rose. One young lady gave a rose to here 4 year old sister who helped motivate her to class each morning. A young man looked upward, lifted a rose and thanked his deceased mother. Moms, dads, boyfriends, great grandmas, and complete families were handed roses, hugged and thanked for making the evening possible.

There were not enough roses to pass out. They cried. I cried. We all cried.

But, I found it most moving that over half of those roses went to the faculty, staff and fellow classmates. Those young people found a family/home in this school. For some it may have become the only family and home they have experienced. They walked in those doors with all the accumulated baggage from their short lives. The faculty faced eace student one-on-one as a young adult and helped them see their hidden gifts then helped nurture those gifts and get rid of the baggage. You could see these students were not just some number in a system. They were treated as individuals struggling with life issues and were offered tools to work through them.

As I drove home I felt there was hope for the future of mankind through these young people. I also wondered where I would be if I’d had such a program because I did not fit into public school system 45 years ago. Congratulations to them all!

Yesterday we celebrated at her grandmas house with family, friends and more than enough food. We needed to move the party from the back yard to the garage as nature provided thunder, lightening and a nice refreshing hard rain.

I came across the title of this post yesterday written by Fr. James A. Wallace and think it fits this season of graduations and moving on to the next chapter in our lives. Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend and I apologize for the lengthy post.

I love you Madie and proud to be your grandpa. Now we will see how “…the story continues to begin.”