Parents of the Class of 2019

We had our final scholarship meal (breakfast at a local country club). Dd had scheduled a wig/makeup appointment for a younger Irish dancer at 8, so we were late and showed up right when the awards started. Ironically afterwards she had to dd22’s wig/makeup for her new gig as an Elsa for birthday parties.

Dd and her sister broke the school record for the 4 x 4 at their track meet last week (4:01.00) which was her goal this season. Two more meets to go. She still has the track, choir, and athletic dinner, I think the last choir concert is tomorrow night.

That’s a great time for that event! I always wanted to run 4X400 (we just called it “mile relay” in my day), but I wasn’t fast enough LOL.
 
DS has his cap and gown, but our ceremony isn't until the 31st - so I'm hoping for tips from those of you who have already done it for getting the darn hat to look right! He tried it on, and it was so awkward.

It's this type:

View attachment 402023 View attachment 402024

He thinks the cardboard circle is supposed to come out, and I think not. And I don't remember my own years ago having that much elastic? - I thought we used bobby pins somehow??
No advice for you but DS's is the same way.
 
DS has an interview this week for one of the county government summer (paid) internships he applied for. He rolled his eyes when I said still go to the math tutoring interview and don't pass up any potential opportunities right now. I guess he really does know what he's doing. Would be nice for one of these to come through so he wouldn't have to do food service again.
 
DS has an interview this week for one of the county government summer (paid) internships he applied for. He rolled his eyes when I said still go to the math tutoring interview and don't pass up any potential opportunities right now. I guess he really does know what he's doing. Would be nice for one of these to come through so he wouldn't have to do food service again.

Good luck to him. We are still impatiently waiting for DD to get called for her job interview or at least find out if she needs to look elsewhere. It will surely be this week because they wanted it to start "mid-May". There is a city council meeting tonight so maybe that's what they're waiting for. If not that job, she needs to follow up on the other application she dropped off. If not that one, I just hope she can find SOMETHING but it's a small town.

She's also been out of school since Wednesday and only has soccer going on so she's bored already. Thank you cards I ordered haven't arrived yet so she can't work on those yet either.
 


Our valedictorians each took 19 AP courses, and got 5s on all of the tests.
...
I had always wondered how DD wasn't in the top 50 in her class, and then we had last night. Holy cow! The Valedictorians had 4.6949 GPAs (they had to take it out that far because they tied, they planned it that way, they're best friends).
...
(I'm going to need a LOT of kleenex on Friday, I'm a total sap!)

And this is why I am glad DD went to a less competitive school. Wow.

Our salutatorians were in a virtual tie- if you took it out to thousandths, one was .001 above the other but since they don't normally take it out that far they called it a tie. I was glad, because the one .001 below took harder classes so it was nice she got to be recognized.

I haven't cried yet or felt like I would. Maybe at college drop off. There's just been too many activities and things to plan and she's still here so it feels like not much has changed.
 
And this is why I am glad DD went to a less competitive school. Wow.

Our salutatorians were in a virtual tie- if you took it out to thousandths, one was .001 above the other but since they don't normally take it out that far they called it a tie. I was glad, because the one .001 below took harder classes so it was nice she got to be recognized.

I haven't cried yet or felt like I would. Maybe at college drop off. There's just been too many activities and things to plan and she's still here so it feels like not much has changed.

I'm really a complete sap. I cry when we go to the Magic Kingdom and they do the state shows by the castle. I cry at the shows on the Disney cruise, I'm just sappy. My family thinks it's funny.
 
A tip that I saw that was really for girls may apply here. Fold the front "v" section back a bit, and use bobby pins to hold the cap in place. That way it's not hanging over their forehead giving them an unnatural widow's peak, and the cap will still stay secure.

We had the Honor's night for DD's school last night. It was 3 1/2 hours long! They have a graduating class of 530, which is smaller than I thought, and around 125 kids in NHS, over 75 kids who graduated with a 4.0 or better, another 100 or so who graduated with a 3.75 or better, and a whole lot who graduated with a 3.5 or better. We had 12 kids, 12, who are National AP Scholars with Honors (I think that's what it's called). Who have taken 8 or more AP classes through their Junior year and received a 4 or better on all of them. Our valedictorians each took 19 AP courses, and got 5s on all of the tests. One is going to Stanford, the other is going to MIT. DD was an AP Scholar with Distinction, meaning she's passed 5 or more AP courses up through her Junior year with a 4 or better on all of them.

I had always wondered how DD wasn't in the top 50 in her class, and then we had last night. Holy cow! The Valedictorians had 4.6949 GPAs (they had to take it out that far because they tied, they planned it that way, they're best friends).

It was interesting to see. Of course it was also distracting because we could see the snow coming down outside as the ceremony is going on. Snow, on May 20th. Crazy! Makes me glad that we don't have graduation scheduled for Red Rocks Amphitheater, as beautiful as it is, it would be cold, drizzly, and miserable! 2 smaller schools did have to reschedule their graduations because of the weather yesterday.

DD's Senior banquet is tomorrow, but she didn't get tickets so probably isn't going, graduation is on Friday, and her party is on Saturday, then it's all over!!!!!

(I'm going to need a LOT of kleenex on Friday, I'm a total sap!)
Dd is 8th in her class, took 9 AP classes and the rest honors (and no study halls, 6 academic courses a year). Here AP and honors are weighted the same. She had a couple of B+’s, one freshman year, so she knew she was out for the top spots. She’s an AP honors something (the middle one), at least for last year. Sorry about your weather!
 


Our school is stupid competitive too. DD has a 4.2xx final GPA and has had all As with a B+ in AP Calc and a B in 4th semester Japanese. She wasn't even top 10 in her class (out of 34 - I think there were only 8 kids in the whole class without honors cords at graduation!). I'm not sure what our valedictorian's GPA is, but I know she has been all-As every semester, took 12 AP classes and is a QuestBridge scholar.

I haven't cried yet either. I'm not sure I will - I never have been "that mom" and I'm more excited than anything to see what comes next for her. But DD10 was a mess at graduation. She isn't ready for her sister to leave.
 
Our school is super competitive, too.

One thing that I thought was interesting -- our school district does all of the graduations in the same venue on the same day. There are 3 high schools (will be 4 next year). School #1 graduated at 10am, School #2 was at 1pm (that was us), and School #3 was at 4pm. But, they were running so close together that we got to see the other graduates/programs because we were there.

I had kind of assumed that the honors given out would be standardized, at least across the district. But there weren't. At DS's school, there were honors cords for cum laude (and variations). There was also a red-white-blue cord for kids who have made post-graduation military commitments, and one for kids who had obtained Work Readiness certificates from the vocational school. There was an honors stole for National Honor Society, the foreign language honor societies, and DECA.

The school that was before ours (same district) offered medals for something (but I don't know what). At our school, only the valedictorian wore a medal... but there were way too many of them to be for that. The school whose graduation was after ours (same district) had all of those, plus cords for things like AP Scholar, Presidential Award, National Merit Scholar Semifinalist, etc-- and cords for lots of clubs and activities like service club, thespian society, etc. I can't remember all of them, but I bet they had twice as many different honor cords as our school. My niece, who will start at that school as a freshman next year, kept the program. She wants ALL the cords and is planning to base her activities on what will earn her a cord!

I was just surprised that things were so different between schools in the same district.
 
One thing that I thought was interesting -- our school district does all of the graduations in the same venue on the same day. There are 3 high schools (will be 4 next year). School #1 graduated at 10am, School #2 was at 1pm (that was us), and School #3 was at 4pm. But, they were running so close together that we got to see the other graduates/programs because we were there.
That's how our county is. Seven high schools, ours is Thursday night then they have three on Friday and three on Saturday, times similar to what you listed. The middle school and elementary school across the street get the Thursday and Friday off (actually all the high schools are closed that Friday) because of traffic. My kids went to the middle school so have always had a very short week after Memorial Day, just a couple days of school.
 
DD's school finally did the final run on class rank. DD was informed she was one of the top 1% (top 3)! Not sure of the final GPA, but she finished with straight A's all the way through. It was a stressful finish in Calc and Physics but she pulled it out. And I won't lie, I'm more than a little thrilled that we'll get reserved seating at the ceremony.

I'm going to have a very hard time holding it together when Pomp and Circumstance starts. This is our last. So many emotions. :sad:
 
I already know I'm going to cry at graduation. I'm happy for DS, but when they receive their diploma, they also get a flower (yellow rose, maybe?) to take to their mom. They go down the steps, to their mom, and back to the stage. I have cried at that every time I've gone to graduation, even when I barely knew the kids!

Today was the day DS was able to choose his dorm room, and he got the building he wanted! He hadn't found a roommate on his own yet, so he chose a room with another freshman already in it. One more thing off the list.
 
I already know I'm going to cry at graduation. I'm happy for DS, but when they receive their diploma, they also get a flower (yellow rose, maybe?) to take to their mom. They go down the steps, to their mom, and back to the stage. I have cried at that every time I've gone to graduation, even when I barely knew the kids!

I did not cry at graduation -- I'm not generally a crier, and I was more proud of DS than sentimental -- but a rose ceremony might have turned me into a blubbering mess! What a nice tradition.

I have a friend whose son recently graduated from college. Their college has a tradition where graduates wear a stole with the university crest on it. After the graduation ceremony, they present their "stole of gratitude" to someone who helped them to reach their graduation goal. That would definitely do me in!
 
Last day of finals is tomorrow - probably the only final that might be reasonably difficult (AP Physics) - then Senior Awards is Friday morning. He is supposed to get an e-mail from RIT tomorrow letting him know when he is to go online and choose his room. I think that is sometime in early June. He apparently has a math placement exam to take, but I have read that it's pretty easy, so he should be able to knock it out next week when he has nothing going on.

Getting him to get applications in for jobs is a struggle. He's been refereeing soccer games, but the season is over now.
 
Okay, so last night I was asking DD if she should check in on the possible job interview and she said she should check her email...turns out late Tuesday night she got an email saying she had an interview at 6pm Thursday and she needed to complete 3 tasks by 2pm today. Guess she thought she would get a call or text instead. So that's today's project- jumping through those hoops, getting out of soccer practice early and making herself presentable on time. :scared: Wish she had seen the email yesterday and could have been working on things sooner but it should still be okay.
 
Okay, so last night I was asking DD if she should check in on the possible job interview and she said she should check her email...turns out late Tuesday night she got an email saying she had an interview at 6pm Thursday and she needed to complete 3 tasks by 2pm today. Guess she thought she would get a call or text instead. So that's today's project- jumping through those hoops, getting out of soccer practice early and making herself presentable on time. :scared: Wish she had seen the email yesterday and could have been working on things sooner but it should still be okay.
Ran into a similar email situation, last year Dd thought she had submitted her application to Tri-M, but apparently didn’t hit submit, emailed the music director, he emailed her back with a deadline, and she missed it. She got in this year, will get a cord, but couldn’t put it on her college applications. These kids need to learn to check email, because they don’t.
 
Last day of finals is tomorrow - probably the only final that might be reasonably difficult (AP Physics) - then Senior Awards is Friday morning. He is supposed to get an e-mail from RIT tomorrow letting him know when he is to go online and choose his room. I think that is sometime in early June. He apparently has a math placement exam to take, but I have read that it's pretty easy, so he should be able to knock it out next week when he has nothing going on.

Getting him to get applications in for jobs is a struggle. He's been refereeing soccer games, but the season is over now.
Ha, Dd is starting her first real job at the garden center where all of her siblings worked/work. They love my kid# and said she would be hired if she wanted to work. Because of dance 5 days a week and sports 6, she could never work, so has just babysitted (a lot) tutored and taught some dance classes. Now that she’s not dancing, and track is almost over, she needs to work. She went down the shore last night close to midnight to some kids beach house for an after prom thing, some of her friends drove down this morning, coming back to night for a track pasta party - this is how she rolls, she likes flexibility, but it’s time for the real world.
 
I already know I'm going to cry at graduation. I'm happy for DS, but when they receive their diploma, they also get a flower (yellow rose, maybe?) to take to their mom. They go down the steps, to their mom, and back to the stage. I have cried at that every time I've gone to graduation, even when I barely knew the kids!

Our kids do that at the senior honors mass. They are supposed to write a letter to their parents, and they present the letter and a white rose to their parents at the end of mass. DD didn't write hers to us, though. She wrote her letter and gave her flower to DD10, because she knew it would mean the world to her little sister. If that didn't make me cry, I'm not sure anything will.

Shan and Kate.jpg
 

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