Graduation, again

Our third child has reached that stage of life known as high school graduation. It's a little bit surreal. As a family that homeschools with the philosophy that learning is a life long endeavor, to mark an "ending" of schooling seems odd. This particular form of schooling ends, the learning never does.

And yet, it is good to recognize and celebrate this transition from home and family to continuing the learning in a different setting.

As each child 'graduated,' we have asked family and friends to contribute their thoughts -- memories and bits of advice -- to a book that we have compiled for the graduate.

I am always stunned at the thoughts people share.

As connected as I am with my children, they have lives apart from mine and my influence. This is a good thing.

I am so grateful for the people who have been part of my children's lives. They so often notice and remark upon aspects of the child's personality or gifts that I take for granted. They see it as special, whereas I just see it as *Emily*.

And I love the pieces of advice they share. Sometimes it's something they heard from their own parents. Sometimes it's something they've learned the hard way.

Best of all, so many of the people in my children's lives share their foundation of faith with her. Remember, Emily, you are one of God's children, now and forever. Rembember, Emily, God will help you when you need help and guidance. Remember, Emily, you are baptized. Remember, Emily, you can be a witness of God's love in the world.

Thanks to all who have or will contribute to this book.

Graduating?! What?!

Life is feeling pretty surreal right now. I know it is for a lot of graduating high schoolers like me, but my case is a bit different. The last time I was in your typical classroom environment was in pre-school, and now in a mere two months I'll be in college. Yowza!
My peers and I are at this weird stage where everything in the future is new, exciting, and scary. For me as a home schooler, you can multiply that by a million. I don't want to think about my future, but that's all I end up thinking about. I know I already have certain skills I can use to survive and do well in the world, so I try to stop worrying. (Let's see how that goes, shall we?) I know I have comforting and supportive people around me, though, and I'm definitely not alone in my anxious thoughts.

Some people ask me if I'm going to be part of the local high school commencement ceremony, but the answer is no. I suppose I could process through my livingroom and my mom could hand me a diploma, but I'd rather not. Fanfare and funny hats aren't my thing. I'll just take the party, please.

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This last week I've made progress with a few compositions, which is always an exhilerating feeling. What's strange is that I could sit at the piano and play you a multitude of tunes that frequently roll around my brain, but to this day my complete collection of finished works--though they're not as epic as the title may suggest-- comes only to a total of three. I'm kind of new at this whole composing thing, so that's probably why I underestimated the insane amount of time it can take to perfect one measure, let alone an entire piece of music. But I'll keep on truckin'. It's a fun mind-bending type of challenge for me. Some people do Sudoku, I write music. What I'm working on now is a piece for choir, because I'm a choir geek raised by more choir geeks who hang out with other choir geeks, and then another piano thing. That's kind of my big summer priority--to finish something--along with catching up with people before I leave for school.

Exciting times are ahead, without a doubt.