Graduation AAR

Ceremony 

Five hundred twenty four 2023 Graduates of the Boiling Springs, S.C. High School. The curse of alphabetic order when your last name is White.

Crystal gets her diploma

Returning to her seat.

Beautiful young woman

Victory Lunch

Baby brother, graduate, and adopted mother.

The Boyfriend

A Navy PO3, he finished 52 weeks of Nuclear Power School two days before her graduation. His next assignment is a welding school then Bangor, WA and assignment to a SSBN. He impressed me with his demeanor.

Granddaughter will attend Emery-Riddle in Florida to become an Aerospace Engineer.  An Honor Student since 1^st grade, she has earned a six figure scholarship and a five figure grant. This will allow her to get her degree without incurring crippling debt or needing to go the ROTC route.

With her in Florida and him in Washington state, I see a lot of frequent flyer miles.

Pride

My principal motivation for driving 1,600 miles to be there was twofold. First, her Dad and my son died four years ago. I wanted to be there in his place, as much as possible. Second, to let her know in person how proud all of us in the family are of her and in awe of her accomplishments.

BZ

She was so pleased to hear commentators on this blog saying BZ. She offered a sincere thank you.

The trip

To be covered in a future blog.

Back to The Day by Day

Granddaughter graduated from High School. There were about twenty of us there to cheer her on. What a delightful young woman she has become.

Lots of time with the other grandkids. We went to the zoo. What a mob of grandparents, great aunts, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. What a great time!

Had a chance to talk to my son and daughter in law at some length. He has some serious service related health issues. They are having problems with the bills and ongoing care for the son involved in the horrid van accident. Let's see. US Government owned van. Being transported on a US Government sponsored and sanctioned trip. Driver a US Government licensed employee. Nope, the government isn't liable for the injuries to all those kids; all of whom are military dependents.

Speaking of stupid. The weather today was severe clear, no wind borne dust, extremely dry roads with no curves for miles. Yet, there were seven accidents involving cars traveling to the venue, even in the parking lot.

The various speakers surprised me. Lots of references to God and to Jesus; all of which received wild applause from the audience. Talked about their 91% graduation rate in spite of way to many meaningless tests - this was administrators talking. Seems at least one New Mexico High School isn't following the progressive line. From the crowd's response, it is obvious the community agrees. Finally, the principal told the graduates they are facing an economy that sucks, that is bleeding the middle class, and the prospects for them having as good a life as their parents aren't good. His message was adapt and keep learning. Not what I expected to hear!