Graduation

Rebekah's graduation from Bob Jones High School was on may 19th, 2009. (So much has happened since then I just haven't had time to blog abt it yet.)

When we got there, and the grad's walked in... Rebekah couldn't find us in the crowd so in todays wonderful world of technology... She texted us a message. ;-) Bill texted back, and so it goes...

Suffice it to say, we watched it from the Nose Bleed section of the Von Braun Center Downtown. They had nearly 800 graduates in the senior class. It lasted for over 3 1/2 hours to hear the speaches and to call out all those names and have all those kids walk across the stage. It was nice.

The band plays pomp and circumstance as the Graduates walk in and take their seats. (and Amanda plays the French Horn in the band so she was there in full support of Rebekah's graduation).As the Graduation went along, and they got closer to calling Rebekah's name she was getting more and more excited and antsy... she was getting the other people around her antsy and excited too... they were all bouncing in their seats, and her hands were shaking and bouncing in her lap. She could hardly sit still until they asked for her row to stand and move to the front of the walkway at the stage.

Bill went around to the other side of the arena, since we of course were on the opposite side of the arena from where Rebekah was sitting. From the other side Bill was able to see the Graduates as they came across the stage and down the ramp and stopped for the Photographer at the end. He tried to get pic's of all of the kids we know from Church, and a few of Rebekah's other friends that we've gotten to know over the years as well.Rebekah's Grandparents (Bill's parents) came down for Graduation. (That is twice we got to see them in a few months. More than most years - Often we have not seen them in several years at a time even - mostly when we have lived over seas.)

Just a few short days after graduation, Rebekah went to Illinois to visit with her boyfriend Ryan and his dad.

Baccalaureate

Today was Rebekah's Baccalaureate. Before we went, some of he kids had asked what it was. Bill told them it was basically a NON-Denominational religious ceremony to help encourage the Graduates as they go on their way.

They had one speaker today. He was a Youth and Family Minister from Madison Church of Christ. He gave a good speech on life lessons.

One of the stories he told, was of when he was a kid, and had broken a table at someones home where his parents were visiting. He tried to 'fix' it and when he was on the way home in the back seat of the car... the guilt became so big that he couldn't stand it any more. So, he spilled his guts, and his parents did a u-turn, and took him back to make him apologize and tell the family what he had done. The family informed him that the table was already broken, and they regularly have to prop the table leg back up, just like he had done. He made the point, that his parents taught him a valuable lesson, even though it turned out that it really wasn't a big deal, and he hadn't really broken the table... but they helped him learn that you need to take responsibility for your actions.

Another time he had done some things he was supposed to get in trouble for, but his parents sort of 'forgot' and when he arrived home, they told him to get ready for bed, and he got ready faster, than ever before, and went right to sleep. However... at 4 a.m. his mom opened the bedroom door, and he got the punishment for the earlier 'crime'! He said that taught him that, there will always be a day of reckoning. You will have to pay for your actions, eventually.
It was pretty good.

We were talking about it, and thinking about how each of our own Baccalaureate ceremony's were probably a bit different. Bill's was held at the Post Chapel on the Military Base he was at in Germany during his High School years. Mine, was held at the Stake Center of the Church, in a very small mostly LDS community. Bill commented that he remembers the music being fairly traditional probably Hymns. I would think the same of mine.

This one? a 5 piece rock band on guitars/both electric and acoustic, and an electric keyboard, and drums, and a woman singer who clapped her hands to encourage the crowd. It was definitely not traditional Hymns. They had the words to all the songs printed in the program, and I sang along to most of the songs, as they had pretty easy tunes to pick up...
Something I thought was interesting, was watching the youth minister up on stage. He didn't try to sing along with any of the songs... and he just watched as the band rocked out to all the songs.

Well, that is one more step down... Graduation is Tuesday! Rebekah has some plans to go out of town for parts of the summer, and then will be leaving mid July to go to New York... Life sure will be different with her gone from home.