Schools Out… Forever!

The Lovely Anna pointed out on Facebook the other day that 21 years ago our oldest daughter, The Animated Elizabeth, started an early special education program through our local public school district. Since that day we’ve gone through over two decades of shivering at the school bus stop, choir concerts, plays, musicals, awards ceremonies, lock-ins, class trips, and the graduations of Elizabeth (sort of), and daughters The Dramatic Victoria and The Effervescent Gabrielle. That all ends tomorrow when our youngest, Number One Son Thomas, graduates from Eastview High School with honors. He’s off this fall to St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, to study computer science with a President’s scholarship, and separate scholarships for choir and theater. The above is something I did for his graduation poster. The playbills represent all the Eastview musicals he was in, from a chorus member in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” to the male lead in “Legally Blonde”. He’s come a long way… I did this for his school notebook his first year of middle school:

That’s it. No more prep school. The days of elementary school holiday shows, middle school band concerts, high school musicals and choir concerts and everything in between is over. Elizabeth will be with us forever, of course, so we will never truly be empty-nesters, but our house has become quieter and more cavernous as each of our “typical” kids goes out into life to make their mark. It’s a sad thing, but also as proud a moment as a parent can have. The important part of our job is over, it’s all support system stuff now. I think we’ve raised some amazing kids, and while the house seems a lot lonelier now, I am excited to see where they take their lives. I’m very proud of them all.

I just wish one of them decided to pursue drawing so I could hire them to do all my work and I could just sit by the pool and sip Mai Tais all day. Oh well.