High School Grad

Today was Bryn and Jared's high school graduation. That's a big deal here (much more so than in Africa, where my own memories are very of a very anticlimatic fizzle-out to six years of high school education!). The ceremony was held in the school's football stadium, with music provided by the school's "symphonic band", and the procession of graduates (in caps and gowns) led in by cadets carrying the US and Californian flags.

The national anthem was sung, and there were speeches (mercifully short) by a wide range of people: the principal, the president of the students' association, one of the valedictorians, a couple of the other students (an "inspirational" message and a class "history"), one of the teachers (chosen by a vote of the students), and the class president.

The graduation itself went fairly quickly with two streams of students coming up on both sides of the stage with names being called alternately from either side. However, with over three hundred graduates, it still took a while!

It was a highly significant graduation for the school which had only opened four years, with this as the first, new "freshman" class (there had been a small graduation last year, as they had also admitted a few transfer students initially). The school has done very well, earning the status of a "California Distinguished High School" despite its youth.

It was wonderful to be here for the boys' graduation. It just seems like the other day that they were babies in Grahamstown — they've come a long way since then!