Challenges Can Be Painful

I have been doing something completely new and different for me: I have been planning for a graduation commencement service. The Oak Grove Academy Homeschool Umbrella and Homeschool Co-op are combining to hold our first Commencement with seniors. Last year we had an Eighth Grade Graduation service that was planned by somebody else. This year it will be combined for eighth graders and seniors.

Since this is our first ever Commencement for seniors, I decided not to do the normal order for everything. We will start our own traditions. I have planned for us to incorporate a Rose Ceremony, a Candle Ceremony, and what I am calling the Tassel Ceremony. For the Rose Ceremony the grads will each take a rose to their parents to thank them. For the Candle Ceremony the parents will give their grads a tea light candle and send them into their future. And the Tassel Ceremony is simply the act of moving the tassel from one side of their cap to the other. Each of these are symbolic of something special for the grads and I will post about that after the commencement.

This has been a challenge for me because I have never been involved in planning a commencement. I have attended three of my own, but all I did was show up and do as they instructed. I think I have struggled more with this than with most programs or services I have planned, with the exception of Christmas and Easter programs. And while it has been somewhat painful, it will also be a time of joy since my youngest son is part of the eighth grade program. Man it is hard to believe that my youngest son will be in high school next year.

I always loved graduation. It symbolized the end of my suffering and pain...until it all started again with the next level of education.

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