So, after an 18-year run, it's time for the finale of our children's childhoods.
If you have a high school senior, I hope you don't have a time-consuming job, because there's an event practically every day and every night, all leading up to the end of Parenting as you know it.
Typical Schedule for Senior Parents (taken from my calendar), rated by quantity of Kleenex :(K-KKKK)
- Varsity Soccer Play-offs/Awards Party – KK
- Senior Parent Separation Night – KK
- Final Club Soccer National Cup Semi-finals – KK
- Last Meal at In 'n Out Following the Quarter-finals in the Inland Empire – K
- "Lifers" Assembly – Graduating K-12 seniors share memories and impart wisdom to tiny kids from the elementary school…it truly was just yesterday that our own children were so little – KKKK
- Senior Dog Day (bring your best friend to school – our over-retrieving pet loved AP Calc BC) - KK
- Last Regular Season Volleyball Game – Senior moms get a rose – KKKK
- Final MRI/ER visit of regular season volleyball – KK
- Club Soccer Awards Dinner – KK (CJ had to miss this because of above injury, but after thirteen years of soccer, this was a real tearjerker)
- Senior Show – KKKK (and I don't even have a kid in theater)
- Last Taco Dinner Delivered by the Neurotic Parent to Journalism Class during Newspaper Production – K
- Trip to tux rental place (the salesman asked CJ what color his prom date's dress was, and he found out by text that it was…turquoise) – K
- Final Grad Night Committee Meeting (I am part of a secret society planning a sober all-night activity to follow Graduation) – K
-Senior Boys Day (this was an event at another school, but I cried just hearing about it) – KKKK
UPCOMING (all in a period of eight days) - Volleyball Award Night, Prom Photo Op, Preschool Moms Coffee, Pre-K BBQ Reunion/Grad Party, Parent Association Thank You Breakfast, Senior Breakfast/Awards, Lifers Cocktail Party, Senior Dinner at Headmaster's House, Graduation, Grad Night, Post-Grad Night Breakfast , Summer of Xanax, and then on to that life-changing mid-August weekend – Move-In, which thankfully they don't call Move-Out…but isn't that what it really is?
Oh no, not move in/out day because, like the swallows at St. Juan Capistrano, they always return … at winter break, summer, etc.