Senior Dinner

Tonight was Senior Dinner. The night the kids got their yearbooks, they heard the inspirational speeches from the wise Kathy Cleaver, college counselor extraordinaire, who talked about community, twenty seconds of courage and curiosity and the very witty and insightful classmate Chris Villani who encouraged whimsy. I held it together the best I could, but when Chris teared up at one moment when he said, “I love you Mom,” or something along those lines I had to put my hands over my face to choke back a sob.
We watched the slide show of three pictures of each graduate from babyhood, middle school to upper school that brought the levity that I needed. Then it was off to dinner. There was no chance for crying at dinner since we were jam packed into the learning commons due to the rain. I am somewhat thankful we did not have a warm spring evening in the court yard because that would have made me even more sad. Having wait staff snatch spoons from the serving dishes and watching dining companions trying to serve salad with sugar tongs kept my mind off this being the last time to be together with this group of friends all at the same time.

Carter got a chance to hug some of her favorite teachers, especially Mrs. Frasher and Mrs. McNall. Having strong women role models has meant so much to Carter. I know she will look back on them as two of the many influential people in her life that she came across at DA. It is hard for her to have perspective on what this school has given Carter while she is itching to move on. But as Mrs. McDonald told the kids tonight, “You can be adults on Saturday, but for the next two days just be kids.” Little do they know that being a kid who goes to DA is about as good as it gets, being an adult is not all that it’s cracked up to be. Especially if you are a mother of a graduate.