Wow, I can hardly believe it myself, it’s finally here! Boo was in the Class of 2014 and we have attended our first child’s High School Graduation! He’s a college bound Freshman this fall! We are so proud of him and excited for his journey at college.
While I’m thrilled that he has earned a Full-Tuition Academic scholarship at his College of choice, I am not so thrilled that we’ll be taking him back to the States soon and leaving him behind when we return to Germany. I know many families have done this before us and that we too will make it work, but I’m not real excited about it. He’s gonna be missed here in Germany for sure! I know he’ll be happy to see Chick-fil-a again!
He on the other hand is thrilled to be headed back to the US, the expat life is not something that he desires like Mr. B & I. He’s also glad that he’ll get to see family & friends. It was a hard PSC moving him mid-Senior year and he really did great and adapted well but I know he would’ve liked to have finished with his friends that he has went to school with since 7th grade. Also his friends back in the US graduated 2 weeks before they did here so was not fun for him to know he ‘could’ve’ been done if he was still back in the US, but he hung in there and finished with great grades & GPA.
Also while he walked here for his Graduation, he’s actually ‘graduating’ from his private school back in the US, so we’ll still have to pick up his diploma and stuff when we are back visiting. We were told he wouldn’t receive a diploma from here (since he’s graduating from his AL school) but he did so I guess he’s the only Senior we know that will have graduated with 2 diplomas! LOL
The graduation was held in a hanger here and the stage was flanked by a F-16 fighter jet on each side, so that’s something that he wouldn’t have gotten to experience in the States. It all went well until the middle of the graduation when they had the Seniors bring a rose to their moms and they played ‘You’re Gonna Miss This.’ Of course when he got to me I started crying, which I so hate to do, then Bea started crying because she’s gonna miss Boo like crazy. We are so proud of him and yet sad at the same time but I look forward to his bright future ahead and know it will all be worth it.
I am so thankful that the military will fly him ‘home’ or in our case to Germany once a fiscal year. So we plan on having them fly him out at Christmas time and we’ll fly him out this summer to stay with us for awhile. We’ll be looking forward to those visits! In the meantime I guess it’ll give Bea & I some time to get creative with care packages for him 🙂
I am seriously going to miss him on our outings doing crazy things like push ups on the railroad tracks….
or doing back flips in random locations or wearing random outfits, LOL!
I wish we had more friends who have been in this situation or are going through it so we could pick their brains, guess it’ll be trial by fire as usual, LOL. Wish us luck!
Hausfrau says
You got some great pics! That rose+ song thing absolutely killed us last year–we were boo-hooing like crazy! I knew it was coming and had tried to prepare myself, but it was still so hard. And some our kids who spoke at graduation were more emotional than those who spoke this year, which made the waterworks flow even more. My daughter just finished her freshman year (you’ll get through it, too!) and is back here with us for the summer–so fun! She’ll actually be doing a semester abroad in Italy in the fall, so that will be nice for all of us. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and best of luck to your son.
patricia says
What a great post. Loved the part about the rose. I was wondering how he was going to get his HS degree since he was not here. He’s a good-looking boy and very smart as well. Don’t forget, we live nearby so email us is we can help out. Of course, our daughter is just an hour away also.
Lisa @ Sorority Life to Army Wife says
Congrats to him!
Dina Farmer says
Thankfully my little one is only 2…..so I still have a while until I send him off into the world. You got this! And you know he’ll do wonderful! He’ll move mountains! And congrats to him!