Spencer's Graduation

My cousin graduated this past weekend, and I don't think I've ever been to a graduation that lasted so LONG! It was over two and a half hours long! My cousin is home schooled, and he is involved in some home schooled association or something. I think there was a total of 80 graduates or something. You would think that that would mean that the graduation would be fairly short. Boy was I wrong! The president of the association was so incredibly long-winded. I remember him talking in the very beginning, and I told Kelsey that more than half of the things he was saying were totally irrelevant and that he needed to wrap it up. Then there was a speaker. Actually, first there was the guy who introduced the speaker. He basically said that he had never heard of the guy before. (okay, so that's not what he said, but if you read between the lines, he implied that) Anyways, he was looking for speakers, he saw his website, and booked him. Man, was that a mistake! You would think that the speaker would direct his words specifically to the graduates. Nope. He said nothing inspirational to them. Okay, and get this. As his opening statement, he made a political joke. That's just something you don't do at a graduation ceremony. I'm sure he ended up offending quite a few people. I found the guy arrogant, and you could tell that he thought he was a "know it all". I quickly tuned him out. Kelsey thought he was wack. He spoke WAY TOO LONG. You could tell that the president and the guy who introduced him regretted ever inviting him.

Okay, so it has occurred to me that maybe I should focus on something more positive. Despite what I just told you, I'm glad that I came to see Spencer graduate. I am very proud of him and his accomplishments. It actually was a nice graduation ceremony - once they announced the graduates. We were in this huge church, and they had a stage and then these two huge screens. They had the graduates put together a 30 second presentation. They'd introduce themselves, and then they'd talk about their life, they'd say thank you's to the people who had touched their lives over the years, and some of them said something about their future plans. They really could say anything that they wanted to. Then they chose up to 6 pictures of themselves and of friends and family, and it would be displayed on the screens. It was really nice to see. While this was going on, the graduate would walk on stage and meet their parents - they'd receive their diploma and they would get a bouquet of flowers. Even though it was super long, I'm glad that I went to his graduation and got to spend some time with my family.