Sarah's graduation from K

My youngest daughter graduated from kindergarten about a month ago. I attended the commencement but was too deep into my depression funk to think about posting comments or pics about it. Reading Hope’s recent post about her kid’s upcoming first communion reminded me that I ought to go back and revisit my own little girl’s big day, and over here, graduating from K is a pretty big deal.

The last time I attended one of these things, which was last year, it was for the older of the two girls. At the time, my ex was still filled with rancor over the events that had led to our break up. She could barely speak to me without spewing animosity. I went anyway, watched the proceedings, but did not participate.

This time though, the ex was like a different woman. She told me right up front that I was going to be the parent that took part in everything that required one. I was shocked at hearing this, but of course was thrilled to death. She appears to have gotten over what happened. Thank goodness.

Notice in the pictures that I’m not in a one of them. Those photos were taken by the “other parent.” Oh well, you can’t have everything. Baby steps. Baby steps. Of course, not having to see pictures of me in them is a bonus as far as I’m concerned.

My older daughter did her kinder graduation a couple years back at their previous school, Montessori, over in Villa Sol Subdivision. If you read back to that post you’ll see me carping over what I considered to be an over-elaborate, over-lengthy ceremony. Compared to that painful extravaganza, this time, my youngest daughter’s commencement at Purok’s St. Catherine’s School was an absolute joy to attend. Lasting ONLY just over an hour, the only speech by an adult was by the monsignor, the pastor of the church and the head of the school. It was short, to the point, and I LOVED it! I am now a fan. You da man Father!

The kids sang a song or two, including the school song, and the rest of it consisted of the graduates going up on the stage one by one with each giving their memorized speech where they introduced themselves, told us who their parents are, and declared what they wanted to do when they grow up. It was very cute, and I loved seeing my brave little 5 year old march up there, grab the mike and loudly and clearly deliver her spiel. Actually, it was quite cool. I didn’t know she had it in her. Wow!

On that, here’s a cultural note. Here’s the list of what the kids wanted to be: for the girls: teachers, nurses, doctors, with maybe one going for lawyer; for the boys: it was all doctors, policemen, and a couple lawyers. Compare that to what you might hear from little kids where I come from, which would ALSO probably include jobs in fire fighting, the military service, and in business. Joining the military seems to be the last thing that would occur to any kid over here, and being a fireman is even lower on their list, if at all. Interesting.

Of course they also trooped up for the obligatory "best at this and that" awards as well at the end for their diploma. Oh, and I shouldn't leave out the part where each child went up there to meet a parent. I didn't realize I was supposed to go up there until I noticed the priest and my daughter standing up there waiting for me to get my butt up there too. 'Oh crap!' I sprinted up there (sort of) apologizing as I ran up the steps. Embarassing--and wouldn't you know it, I was the only foreigner there. What a dum-dum.

For the full slideshow of Sarah’s graduation click on this link to the Flickr set.