|
Do you remember who attended your high school graduation? What about your grade school graduation? You wonder if the graduate will even notice who is there with all the preparation and excitement of getting ready for graduation. But when you revisit your own memories, you realize you remember and the attention and good wishes made a difference.
Whether you are the parent or just one of the extended family, you should go. Not so that years later they will remember you attended, as you remember who attended yours, but to provide the encouragement a child needs for the next step.
Even if it is only kindergarten or only grade school or only middle school, your presence is important. How are the students to know their learning is being recognized if the important adults in their lives are not there to do the recognizing? The first graduations are events where your support can influence their efforts in later schooling.
The graduates might not thank you for the attention. They may not even recognize their own feelings about it. "Graduation? Don't worry about it" and "It's no big deal" are their usual reactions. But in their plans for celebration you can see that it is a big deal. You may be tempted to relax your interest as the teens go through high school and beyond. But as the choices become more voluntary, you need to be even more supportive of what you know is the right direction.
Kids are not likely to say, "Gee, I'm really glad you came." Your graduate is probably too distracted by all that is going on and not quite mature enough to recognize consciously how much it means. But later, as he/she feels the challenge of the next hurtle, the memory of your presence and encouragement may keep him/her going forward.
Here's a point in life where Woody Allen's remark is doubly true, Eighty percent of life is just showing up.
|
