Yesterday, Frick graduated from elementary school. It was a bittersweet celebration for me. The kids in his school stood in the corridors and “clapped out” Frick and the 5^th graders. Then each of the 5th graders were given a certificate in a graduation-type ceremony. The principal, a truly lovely person, gave a short “commencement” speech about how the “graduates” had been given the foundation to dream big. She also told them to remember that their parents loved and supported them. Each student was called up one by one to receive their certificates and shake both their teacher’s and the principal’s hands. After the ceremony, there was a pizza party with some loud music and a bit of group dancing. Good practice for the future.

The last ceremony like this that I attended was Frick’s “graduation” from pre-school. It seems like that was only yesterday. But that was different. It was so precious. They were just little kids acting like big kids. The ceremony yesterday felt like the true start of things to come.

And these things will be coming faster and faster. The numbers that I had always known kept playing over and over in my head. Frick has been at his elementary school for six years. He will be in middle school for half that amount of time. The time that he will spend in middle school and high school will be just a year longer than the time he spent in elementary school.   And, boy, that six years went by so fast.

Frick’s second week of kindergarten, I went back to work after staying home with my boys for three years. Have I really been back to work for six years? Sometimes, as a working mom, I feel cheated that I don’t get to participate more at the boys’ school. And I feel that even more when I attend events like this at the school. But when I see what a wonderful job the parents who do get volunteer do, I feel so lucky that my boys go to such a greatly supported neighborhood school. It seems that Frick’s middle school also has that same type support as well.

So with another milestone passed, summer begins once again….