one of the best times of his life

It's something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life - Green Day

Yeah, any more, that song is as much a graduation song as any graduation march. It gets played at most of them in some way shape or form, and was last night.

Last night was the youngster's rite of passage from 8th grade to High School, complete with diploma. Yes, my fear was still present, and I looked, to make sure his was more than a blank sheet of paper. He did pull through..yesssssssssss. There were tears and hugs and speeches filled with emotion and inspiration. The youngster looked at the wife with her eyes bloodshot welling up yet again after it was over.

"Mom, don't you dare cry."
"But look at Mrs. So-and so, and Mrs. So-and-so."
"Yeah, but they're not my mom."

Today they're having a class party, and after that, it's over. Sure, he'll see some of his buddies over the summer, and three others are going to high school with him. They'll do movies together and meet up at different places for fun, but that'll be it for a lot of the kids he spent the last 6 years with. He doesn't realize yet what that means, and he'll miss some of them more than he knows, but that's part of growing up.

In the meantime...we already have his required summer reading books.