Amanda Lamb: Celebrate

I don’t know about you, but I am giddy at the thought of being able to celebrate important moments again. Sure, we have celebrated during the pandemic, but these celebrations lacked the fanfare that usually goes along with milestone moments.

This coming May, my younger daughter will graduate from high school. While we don’t know exactly what that celebration will look like right now, we know one important thing—it is happening. This will not be a drive-through graduation or a virtual graduation, but a real, in-person graduation. It will be outside, and there will be guidelines for sure, but after a senior year that was less than celebratory, I’m so glad my daughter and her classmates will have this moment for us as a school community to honor their accomplishments.

I remember in the spring of 2020 as my friends posted their children’s graduation ceremonies online. Many were drive-through or virtual, and while they were lucky enough to have most of their senior year intact, the final moments of their high school careers left little to be desired.

I heard somewhere from a wise person once that there are so many important milestones when we are young—that’s why our memories of them are so vivid. As we get older, the milestones become fewer and less often. And in fact, most of the milestones we experience later in life involve our children—graduations, marriages, grandchildren. So, while a high school graduation is just a ceremony, just one day out of life, it is also a family milestone that should be celebrated and remembered.

When my older daughter graduated from high school, I didn’t realize how emotional I would be until the moment I saw her walk across the stage. We did it! My husband whispered through tears as he leaned in close to me. That’s when my own tears started to flow. Yes, we did, I thought. And here we go again getting ready to experience this for the last time. No matter where the world stands on the day my daughter graduates, in our house her graduation will be a grand celebration. Hopefully, the first of many more milestones to celebrate in 2021.