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Monday, May 22, 2006
Graduation showdown at Arena?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Starting today through Saturday, Gwinnett County high schools will salute more than 7,600 graduating seniors. Ten schools will do this inside the Arena at Gwinnett Center.
Biologically speaking, that means there must be about 15,000 of you just like me with 12th-grade offspring. Those of us who have spent $60 on a yearbook and $3 a day on school lunches that were barely eaten.
We went to not-so-tasty spaghetti dinners at the school and too-early-in-the-morning pancake breakfasts so that some segment of our child’s education could have a profitable season.
And now, finally, we’re finished!
Then we learn only eight family members will be allowed at graduation.
It’s like Willie Wonka giving out golden tickets to the Chocolate Factory: Charlie, Veruca, Violet and Augustus plus one guest only. The rest of y’all aren’t invited to the festivities.
So who should get to go to the ceremony?
The relatives who sent presents and checks for every birthday and every holiday for the entire life of the graduate?
Or the ones who have missed every birthday and every holiday but have sent four e-mails pleading for plush, air-conditioned seats inside Gwinnett Arena?
So far, only one person has a guaranteed seat at my son’s graduation. That’s my mother who has been talking about it every day for six months. This is due in part to her six-month existence in assisted living. Days filled with easily digestible foods and early bedtimes culminating with eight or nine prescriptions. Coming here is actually a plot she cooked up to escape physical therapy.
All the other blood relatives of the graduate will just have to continue arguing.
“X-Men” may open in theaters this Friday. But for my graduate’s family, split in half by divorce, it’s X Games at the Arena while we decide which eight family members are most important.
If you have a child in the exponentially growing Gwinnett County School System, expect larger and larger graduation classes in the future. Maybe your child will graduate from the Georgia Dome or Phillips Arena!
Finally, to my 15,000 fellow Gwinnett County parents of 12th graders, congratulations!
But who in your family will actually be at graduation?
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