Graduation Day

The Boy graduated from kindergarten today. Yes. I said graduated. It’s a milestone, in my opinion, to go from kindergarten to first grade. From pretend school to elementary school. Because even though the advent of serious competency testing has moved kindergarten from all frills and finger paint to something a bit more serious, let’s face it, it is still mostly arts and crafts with a good dose of reading thrown in for good measure.

This year has been a wakeup call for him in a big way. And for us, as his parents, in a lot of ways as well. His eyes have been opened to the fact that not everything in life is about play and fun. That there are times that you just have to buckle down and work if you want to move forward. You have to commit yourself to learning new things or you get left behind. And he’s starting to learn that the world does not revolve around him every moment of the day.

For us, for me especially, we’ve learned that we may need to hold his hand a bit more. To provide some additional guidance on how to prioritize. On how to make choices. On how to take his blinders off. I think I’ve been thinking (most likely because he’s my first born and therefore can do little wrong in the greater scheme of things) that he’d just get it. Life would just arrive at his door step and he would greet it with the gorgeous manners with which we’ve equipped him and run gaily into the sunset of ultimate success. Watching him struggle so completely with learning how to read has shattered that day dream and brought us all down to earth. In a good way.

I have no intentions of lowering my expectations for him. I have however, learned how to look at progress towards meeting (and exceeding) those expectations in the grandest spectrum of color instead of just black and white. And that in and of itself is a tremendous gift.

I am so thoroughly proud of my boy. I am so thrilled to see what is next on this road of adventure for him.