My son graduated eighth grade today. As of today, he is now a high schooler. I had a million thoughts going through my head. I remembered the day my ex and I brought him home from the hospital more than 14 years ago, and how scared I was. I thought of the day before his first day of first grade, when his mother, from whom I had by then split, called me and asked me to talk to him-- they'd gotten into a fight. He told me that he was not going to first grade. He had no choice, I told him.
I thought of my own eighth grade graduation in June of 1975. The Vietnam War had just ended. Gerald Ford was President. Cell phones, ipods, home computers, dvd's and cd's were all still in someone's imagination. As I held my camcorder, weighing a little over a pound, recording his graduation, I thought about the instamatic camera that my parents took my picture with that day, and how much things have changed. As I thought about the fact that we are now in another pointless, grinding war, I thought about how little had changed.Mostly, though, I stood there amazed at how my little boy had turned into a young man.
13 comments:
Congratulations to him, and what a wonderful post from you!
Congratulations to you both.
When I graduated eighth grade the first Bush was president, and we were right around the corner from Desert Storm. Things haven't changed much since then, either.
Congratulations!
You want to start getting really nostalgic and pondering the passage of time? Wait till he hits 18 or 19. Lordy.
Hey, same thing just happened to me last week, almost down to th' letter! I was sitting there thinking of the day Sunflower was born, sitting behind her mother and her grandmother, thinking back to when we were a couple and about 10,000 other memories.
Then the Grateful Dead song started in my head, "What a long, strange trip it's been..."
Well done, both of you!
*sniffle, sniffle*
What a sweet post, Johnny Yen.
Congrats Adam, and again, nice job with the parenting JY!
I remember graduating from 8th grade, all the excitement of the new industrial revolution, boy those were heady times!
great post.....memories are wonderful, especially if you have pictures to go along wiht them....
we did not graduate from 8th grade, just went to high school....just terrified of Freshmen Friday...when all the bad stuff was suppose to happen to freshmen.... Nair in your hair....punchfests......dumpster dumping ( freshmen getting thrown in the dumpsters).....nothing really happened....
Major congrats and kudos and nods on the penultimate para'
What a long strange trip it's been, eh?
Uncle Yen,
Geez, I remember him just crawling around as an infant. Seems like yesterday. But then we were roommates 24 years ago too . . .
Congrats Adam!
What a beautiful post - really beautiful.
He seems like a great kid. No surprise - he comes from good stock.
Congrats to all.
That picture made me cry at work honey.
He's a wonderful kid, and I am glad to have him. Even though I know when he makes his millions, he is going to charge me interest.
xoxo
Congrats! Graduating from 8th grade is a big deal! (But here in the south it is not. My daughter didn't have one, just a pat on the back and go to HS.)
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