Significant Others

This is a week which I have anticipated for 9 months.  [No I am not pregnant.]  This little (now taller-than-all-of-us) guy is crossing the stage and graduating from high school.  I have seen my son approach this passage of time and there has been such a mixture of memories flooding in.

Baby memories -  *How content he was - if he was crying, it meant something needed immediate attention.  *The hospital crib trying to catch his breath when he had RSV. *Watching his older brother and sister from his car seat. *Being content in his high chair with having a  pickle to suck on  while his mother raced around trying to make supper.  *How he conquered the milestones without the fanfare - like the day I noticed he was rolling over on his own in the middle of a crazy busy day.  *Crawling into bed with us poor, tired, just-can't move-to -take -him-to-his-own-bed-parents, every night until well after he was four because we had such a 'lovely bed'.  

Little boy memories -  *His blue-as-the-sea eyes which always got him extra treats from store owners, garage sale organizers, and his mom.  *How he would eat each piece of food carefully, with one elbow on the table, to hold up his chin.  *The first day of preschool and making him a 'lunch' like the other kids.  *The cowboy boots which he wore day in and day out until they fell off his feet.  *His wish to have a Santa suit and the trips to the store and Oma's house to get it made.

School Days memories - *Asking him why he didn't smile for this school picture and he replied "I was smiling on the inside, Mom".  *The meetings with the teachers to decide on a plan to help him do his very best in class.  *His continual optimism in the face of the challenges of education. *His participation in the school productions.  *His uncanny ability to win things from raffles, draws, and fun fairs.  *His artistic flair.  *His business savvy - selling his art to other children on the playground in exchange for items they had on their person.  *Birthday parties with bingo games, BBQ's, go-carts, and paintball.

Vacation memories - *Searching for treasures, which generally meant lugging home random bits of seaweed and rope.  *The pilot's jacket which he so desperately wanted to buy, and had to top up his spending money with his own stash, and wore until it was in tatters. *His excitement for the camping trips.  *His good-natured (sort of) tolerance of 'educational' efforts during the summer.  *The inukshuks he and his brother made at the beach.  *His decision to work at camp for several summers on the work crew, and then as a junior counsellor.

Home memories - *His job was to clean the mud room and he would empty it out and clean it and then put everything back.  *His love of oatmeal-raisin cookies.  *His interest in baking and my taking advantage of the opportunity to hone his math skills.  *Taking him to soccer, baseball, art lessons, and birthday parties.  *His interest in all things anime, swords, dragons and adventure in general.

Middle School memories - *Rugby games, signing permission forms for all kinds of school trips, band concerts (I use the term loosely - after one of the songs, my husband looked at the program and asked me which song they had just played), going to the awards ceremonies, and seeing him get the Art Award, the Athletic Award and the Citizenship Award.

High School memories - *How guilty I felt on his first day of school that he had to do tests instead of getting to know his fellow students in his homeroom.  *His dogged determination to tackle school projects regardless of the outcome.  *The stellar poem he wrote in English 11 about a thunderstorm.
Going to the Awards Ceremony where he received the Art Award and 100$ gift card to spend at the mall.  *The sleepovers, and invitations to friends to spend time at The Pokeaway.  *The marathon weekends of renovations which he participated in at The Pokeaway, and how he always invented ways to accomplish the tasks which he was given in a more efficient manner.  *The headphones he wore while mowing the lawn.  *How he called the apartment we lived in for 8 months "Our Home Away from Home".  *His trip to Chicago with the choir, his trip to Hawaii as an honorary soccer teammate on his dad's girls' team.  *His trip to Mexico with his dad and the church group to help build some houses.

Today begins the round of celebratory exercises, beginning with a choir concert, followed by the graduation exercises tomorrow, a trip to the water-slides, the grad retreat on Thursday, and ending with his prom and lock-in on Friday.  It is impossible to process the entire import of this passage of time of his life in just one week, or a single blog post.  I feel like  I am trying to hug Jello.  I can't hold onto it.  I do know that I am extremely proud of the young man he has become and the solid decisions he has made all along the way.  Even though there will be many grads in the crowd, there will be only one face I will look for.  As he crosses the stage, I will be cheering him on, my heart bursting with pride for a job well done.