One Proud Mama and Papa

It's as if time knows no bounds as to flying away from me.  As I've said probably every month, May (or whichever month it's been) has passed way too quickly.  Perhaps it seems even more so to many of you too, especially if you've been amongst those of us who have celebrated graduations and other school year-end activities.

Nick graduated 8th grade last night.  He's been an excellent student since his pre-school days.  And while he did not make valedictorian or salutatorian, he did receive a President's Education Award certificate for Outstanding Academic Excellence.  He also, for the first time though very close every year, made the Principal's List honor roll with a sustained g.p.a. of 3.85 - 4.0 during the first 3 quarters of the year.  Additionally, he received a Presidential Physical Fitness Award for which one of the qualifiers was to be able to run a mile in 6 minutes 27 seconds.  He did it in 6 minutes and 23 seconds and his comment was "it was painful".  

Nick 5/30/2013

Nick,  8th grade graduate

I wasn't able to get any good still shots of him in the auditorium receiving his awards or diploma, and managed also to not get a single shot of him in his gown nor of him with me and/or Marty.  I did get a couple shots of him outside under our tree dressed in slacks, shirt & tie.  Marty has some shots on his camera, but it could be decades before they get shared with me.

The week leading up to this graduation was hectic, mentally when not physically, as I had come down with a virus on Friday, then on Monday, Nick came down with it and over the next three days for him, he carried a fever peaking at 102.5 late Tuesday afternoon.  School policy is no attendance until fever has been under 100 for 24 hours, so having already missed his two finals on Tuesday, he would also miss his final on Wednesday, and we were sweating bullets (amongst our prayers) as to whether he'd be well enough to make his last final on Thursday and the graduation ceremony that night.  As it was, he had to miss his 'mandatory' rehearsal on Wednesday (I went and observed so that he'd know what he needed to do) though he really, really wanted to be there.  

Along with all that, I was constantly in touch with his teachers trying to determine when he could best take his finals as there were only two allotted times on Thursday for that purpose and he had three to make up.  The teachers were very gracious with their being available at other times.  I thought it would be too much for Nick to do all in the same day, but he was determined, so we got them all scheduled for Thursday, along with his regularly scheduled piano lesson and the ceremony itself that night.  Whew, it was one long, busy, tiring day - three trips to the school for me, and it's 11 miles one way to get there.  I'm still tired, LOL, but Nick really hung in there and got done what needed to be done and feels he did ok on all 4 finals.  And now we can both rest.

Tomorrow, we will have a celebratory dinner at Olive Garden after we go to see the new Star Trek movie.