Passages

People would pass me at church, in the grocery store, at the mall, at the park ... EVERYWHERE when Laney was a baby and tell me to enjoy these years because they fly by. I would smile politely and nod as I was wrestling my wiggly toddler to the ground, hoping for a minute of peace, never truly believing that time would move as quickly as they warned. But you know what? They were right. I think I blinked a couple of times, and when I opened my eyes again I was looking at a grown young lady who was preparing to head out into the distance to forge her own way in the world. How did that happen? Where did the years go? What did we do with the time spent in those years? Why can't time slow down just a bit for me?

I don't know why I didn't write this post sooner. I guess things hadn't quite hit me yet. Well, here goes ...

Laney graduated last Friday from Waynesville High School. I thought that I would be horribly emotional during the ceremony, but I wasn't. I think that I can attribute my lack of tears to the great inconvenience of the event. The new high school football stadium was not quite finished in time for graduation, so they held it in the same place they have for many years, Slaughter Field next to the Middle School. This stadium is much too small for the needs of our district now, so it was horribly crowded. We came to the ceremony with Herman's mom, sister Laurenda and her four daughters, and we were going to need a bunch of seats, so we arrived an hour and a half early. Luckily we were lucky enough to get spots on the main bleachers with a good enough view of the stage. Unluckily, we were there an hour and a half early, so we had to sit for all that time as well as for the ceremony itself. That was a long time. By the end of the first two hours I had already lost feeling in my rear end, and I was finding creative ways to encourage my littler ones to hold it in so that we didn't have to catapult ourselves over a crowd of people in order to head to the bathrooms. Long story short, I was too uncomfortable to feel much emotion.

The Valedictorians of the Class of 2013

I had a week of feeling super proud of my sweet Laney. She has worked hard during high school and taken her classes seriously. Even after taking a year off to home school during her junior year, she came back for her senior year and took several difficult classes in order to finish out as a valedictorian. Waynesville has a unique way of determining valedictorians where the candidates need to take a minimum number of advanced classes while maintaining a perfect GPA. They do not generally have only one valedictorian. This year there were thirteen. I kind of like it that way. I have heard a few parents complain that there are more than one, but really, who cares? I think that it is great to recognize all the kids who have worked hard and gotten good grades in the hard classes. Seeing Laney recognized was great, and I LOVED watching her give her valedictory address. In front of hundreds and hundreds of people she was able to stand tall and poised as she spoke to us. Her speech was beautifully written and nicely delivered. She made me smile. As a bonus, because Herman is on the school board, he was able to hand her her diploma. It makes me hope that he can be on the board for all of our kids' graduations ... but that would be an awfully long time, I think.

The week leading up to graduation was full of recognition ceremonies for Laney as well. She found out that she received a full ride scholarship to BYU-Idaho. Yippee! That will certainly ease our minds as she heads off to college. She also received a few community scholarships as well, and those should help her to pay the extra expenses leading up to college.

Laney receiving one of her community scholarships
at the senior awards night.

We were maybe most proud of her departmental honors that she received at the Passing of the Torch ceremony at school on the day of graduation. These awards went to the top senior students for each department at the high school. Laney received honors from the English, Social Studies, and Journalism department. I know her teachers loved her, and I'm sure they appreciated her enthusiasm for those subjects, especially during a time when many seniors are basically phoning it in as they wait to graduate.

The one time I shed a few tears was during the Passing of the Torch ceremony. It just hit me at that moment that her time as a student in Waynesville was over, and I wasn't quite ready for it. I can't imagine how our family will function with her somewhere else in the world. Okay. I'm being over-dramatic. Our family will function just fine. It will just be different. 

Now we are trying to enjoy our last summer as a full family together. After this summer we will constantly be sending children off into the world. It looks like Savannah is going to be graduating a year early, so she'll be leaving us next year, and few years later Spencer will head off on a mission. I wish there was some way to capture these moments and never let them go, but just like a mighty river before me, my life just flies on, whether I want it to or not. I take some comfort in the fact that Laney is a good girl who is trying to make good decisions. She still loves us and holds on to our family relationships. There are many graduating seniors who hit the door running and don't look back as soon as they graduate. I don't see this happening with Laney, thank goodness. I hope that she doesn't have a lot of struggles as she leaves home, but I feel as if she has all the right tools to help her manage whatever comes her way. Parenting from a distance is going to be a new challenge for us, but I think that Laney will make things fairly easy in that department. She has a lifetime of excitement ahead of her. I just hope that I can enjoy the ride with her and not miss those big moments that continue to bind us together as a family. 

One graduation ceremony down. Six to go. I think I need a hug.