Graduation Time!

It's that fun time of year again -- time for graduations, whether it be from preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school, or college. I was looking at some pictures online and noticed that some schools are very elaborate when it comes to their graduations. My high school wasn't too fancy, but we did the traditional caps, gowns, and all that jazz. I only have a few pictures of my high school graduation. Our camera was acting up and they turned out blurry. Maybe I'll scan them and see if I can fix them up sometime.

I had to laugh at this picture. This was when I graduated from kindergarten. As you can see, my mom had forced me into getting one of those super short boy hair cuts, which I hated with a passion. Every time she made me cut my hair like that I was absolutely miserable. Regardless of my childhood agony, which you've all heard plenty of, I have to laugh at this picture. You might notice the graduation cap made from construction paper and yarn. I know, but yarn was big in the 1970s. The diploma, which I no longer have, was lovingly glued onto construction paper. It probably wasn't even glue because back then we used paste for everything. Remember paste? I can't tell if the colors are red & blue, or purple & orange. And of course, there I am in the typical plaid dress. But hey, at least I matched my cap and diploma, right? My mom had a thing for plaid. I think it scarred me for life.

Fast forward to 2012 and you'll find kindergarten graduations that are much more elaborate. Some have the full cap, tassel, and gown thing going on. I don't even want to know how much that costs parents. Even so, I'm sure it's fun for them. Years later, those kids will cherish their graduation pictures, whereas I just get a good chuckle out of mine. My girls graduated kindergarten from private schools, but they just wore dresses to their ceremony. There were no caps, gowns, or anything fancy. I was looking at my niece's son's graduation pictures today and noticed the children were wearing little pretend caps made from a heavy card stock. That made me feel a little better, knowing that not all schools get all wild and fancy.