The end of an era?

I set foot in the halls of Floyd Central High School yesterday afternoon for what may be the last time, as 9 years 9 months 8 days of being the parent of at least one high-school student came to an end with Savannah's graduation -- one year early! She accumulated enough credits to achieve a Core 40 diploma in three years.

Her boyfriend B.J. and his sister Tara also graduated, and their parents were there, along with Sarina, her boyfriend Eric, and Emilie -- and, of course, Zada. (She slept through most of the ceremony.)

I suppose she'll miss FCHS. I know I will. While we didn't take much role in their academic life (they were all good students and didn't need that much help), Meg and I did participate to some degree in their extracurricular interests, sometimes only as a taxi service, sometimes as part of the audience, sometimes as actual assistants (Meg at least, who has sewn costumes for several years). All the plays that Aaron and Savannah teched for, Sarina's participation in color guard and choir, Savannah's handbells -- all over! I'm even going to miss running over to school at 10:30 P.M. every night for the last two or three weeks before a play to pick Aaron or Savannah up from tech work.

I'm still Academic Bowl proctor, of course. While that doesn't involve contact with Floyd Central students, it is the last thread linking me to the place upon which so much of my kids' lives centered for so long, and so I prize it (and I may enter the halls again if FCHS should host another invitational). I don't know whether Meg plans to continue sewing costumes.

But it had to end, and I'm happy that it ended so well -- not least, with a second-generation accelerate in the family. Congratulations, Savannah!