Graduation Day

Congratulations, Dylan! Class of 2014 Lowell High School.

What an emotional day it is to witness your child reach this kind of milestone. This is my fifth high school graduation: Laila at Lowell, Sarah at Redwood, Peter at Redwood, Aidan last year at Balboa, and Dylan tonight at Lowell. Still to come: Julia in three years, presumably at Gateway, where she is wrapping up her freshman year.

I admit that I cried in the darkened auditorium in the early part of the ceremony, but I do not believe anyone noticed. I'm sure other parents did too.

Four years ago, this brilliant young son of mine was so excited when he got admitted to Lowell, which is a merit school, rated as one of the ten best in the world (according to its principal.)

The academic experience for him was clearly mixed. But socially he thrived, making good friends and going to lots of parties.

The odd part of all that is if you would have asked me I would have predicted the academics would have turned him on, and the social part might have been challenging.

But parents never truly know their children's realities; we just glimpse what is shared with us.

One thing I truly appreciate about Dylan, as I watched him walk up there on stage tonight in his cap and gown and old tennis shoes, is the conversations we have always been able to have. He shares his life with me, his thoughts and feelings.

Much of the past few years, these conversations have included his reasons for not trying to do well in class, a kind of intellectual rebellion I've had trouble arguing against, even though I knew he was limiting his college options in the process.

His test scores remain so very high. He reads constantly. He has ideas about everything. But he only has a couple of college options and he is not sure how to choose.

We'll figure this out together. For tonight I am just glad high school is over for him, and as his lovely smile in the photos shows, so is he.

On to his future!

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