One of the main reasons for staying in Illinois through the month of May, was to be available to our youngest daughter, while she navigates her school’s graduation season. She is the academic advisor; 10th-12th grade English teacher; yearbook advisor, and major driver for end of year events. Including:
High School Graduation
She works in a small Christian school in Williams Bay Wisconsin. It’s an extremely conservative area, noted for its lush vacation homes and beautiful resorts. Lake Geneva Wisconsin is nearby, an escape spot for weary city and suburban people who live in northerin Illinois.
Her school is 41 years old! I graduated from a small Christian school in 1977, a mere 6 years older than her school. When she first began teaching there, I spent a day helping her set up her room. One of the teachers came by, and spent a few minutes asking me what it was like to attend a Christian school in the 70’s.
I felt like subcultural royalty, or a discovered fossil, I can’t decide which.
Anyhow, I know what it’s like for teachers in small schools. They tend to take on more work than they’re paid for. There are far more tasks to finish than hands to finish them. And graduation season is probably the heaviest time of year for my daughter’s workload. Award ceremonies, Senior chapel, Grad rehearsal, diploma stuffing, program folding, and on top of it all, finals, papers and grades, (oh my!).
When we talked about this time of year, back in December, her imagination went wild. She was already prepping tasks for me to do! Jr/Sr banquet dress alterations. Handing out programs at graduation. Managing parents of seniors, while they wait to meet their students at the stage. She had a list for Bruce also, playing sound man, and maybe teaching a class or speaking in chapel.
I’ve already written about how our camping plans devolved. But let me just say, being where we landed has been a decent, (and much cheaper) solution to our devolvement mess.
Phew!
We spent a day at school participating in Senior chapel. Normally chapel is divided by elementary and secondary school, but this ranked as an all school event. However, first there was the traditional Senior escort, of the Kindergarten grads through the school. Big tall 17/18 year-olds, holding hands with little 5/6 year-olds all dressed in caps and gowns, (of 13 seniors, 3 were girls).
A Kodak moment if ever there was one!
So many thoughtful traditions during the chapel service. Kindergarten advice. Seniors praying for the 8th grade as they transition to high school. The student body president giving the message. A narration by seniors about their annual Senior trip to the Grand Canyon, complete with video and sound effects. Several of the kids had never flown before.
I was moved to tears once or twice.
Graduation day arrived! We enjoyed seeing Carolyn in her element as the person introducing the grads, and giving a brief bio as each received their diploma.
Later in the month we helped with a Macbeth Feast, that she holds with her sophomore students each year. She sets up her room for a meal, then the kids perform (with scripts) the banquet scene in the play. Sometimes a parent or two will attend, much to their student’s dismay. Being the teacher’s parents gave us preferred status as honored guests. It was kind of ominous to know we were older than some of the parents…
Our other reason for landing in IL in May was to attend an honor court for an Eagle Scout.
David Koikkara is like a nephew to us. We knew his parents before he arrived in this world. Bruce and Thomas worked together on a project back in 2000, and struck up an immediate friendship over – FOOD! Thomas and Shanti were only married a few years at this time.
Lifetime friendships = family.
Anyway, we knew this was in the offing and we wanted to be there. He is a special young man, bright, responsible and very considerate. We couldn’t miss this time to honor him.
I even made him a quilt…
We were evicted from our Extended Stay location on the Friday prior to the event. Apparently we didn’t disclose that we brought a cat, (untrue) and they got very stinky about it. We’d been there a week before it was known, so they thought we were trying to hide him. Sigh… We really couldn’t catch a break this trip! Once again, Koikkaras took us in, but as it turned out we were able to help with the event, so we felt a bit less intrusive.
We finally moved back into our wheely house last Tuesday. Just enough time to unpack all of our things, get settled and have a good night’s sleep, before heading to Michigan for the summer. We have our younger daughter with us for 12 days, she had PTO to use or loose, and decided camping was a nice change of pace. She’s using the tag: #academicinthewoods.
We’ll connect with our older daughter and her family while we’re here. And we’ll attend, and hopefully reconnect with the church we felt led to visit, 2 years ago in Detroit.
But for now, it’s the yearly, Great Mayfly Invasion on Lake Erie…
It’s the circle of life out here. Mayflies eat baby mosquitoes and birds eat mayflies, and so it goes. They have a 24 hr life cycle, and we hear this is just the beginning of their season. Fortunately, they don’t bite!
I hear they have their own fan page on SM…
Happy Summer!
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