the big finish

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Matthew P_. I would like to thank my mom and dad for all their encouragement and support during these elementary school years. I will always remember getting to participate in the sixth grade Olympics. In 20 years, I hope to be a professional snowboarder.

Last night was the big night. We had a very enjoyable sixth grade recognition ceremony on a hot and steamy evening with standing room only in the auditeria at Matt's school. It was impressive that they were able to pull off the event in less than 2 hours -- complete with songs, special awards, prophesies by 62 children (Matt's is above), teacher award presentations, and then a personalized certificate for each child so that everyone got some kind of recognition. They had rehearsed several times, and it showed. I loved all the prophecies. A couple of the kids gave Oscar-type speeches! They all had the same elements: greeting, self-introduction, thanks to someone, memory of elementary school, and what they would be in 20 years. Matt wanted to say that he would be 32 years old, but he opted for something more "serious."

Grandma and Grandpa came for the special event -- their second "graduation" of the day. They attended Jeremy's fourth grade graduation in Rome earlier that afternoon, and had to miss out on Mia's pre-school graduation that evening. Talk about being in demand! After the dignified recessional, the kids and families enjoyed a dessert reception that was was absolute joyful chaos -- complete with kids trying to suck the helium out of balloons, running around saying hi to one another in high squeaky helium voices. (Yes, Matt was one of them.)

Matthew was very excited to receive a President's Award for Academic Excellence. It was signed by President Obama. (He did tell me with a completely straight face that he was pretty sure it wasn't an original signature, but rather, just a copy of his signature that came on the

certificate.) Still -- it was very nice! We are very proud of this accomplishment.

The Memory DVD was a big hit. It was fun seeing all those little kindergarten faces grow up through the years in photos, set to perfect music. Each child got to bring home a copy, and they also received a Class of 2016 t-shirt (which many wore to school today for the last half-day) and had classmates autograph the shirts. Can you believe it? They figured out the h.s. graduating class year. I hadn't heard it until just recently, and it really blows my mind how quickly that will approach.

I was surprisingly very emotional as I dropped Matt off at his elementary school for the last time this morning. He took the bus morning and afternoon for the first three years (K-2), but preferred to have me drive him to school in the morning from 3rd through 6th. He took the bus home when he wasn't playing sports or doing ski club. I liked starting my day that way, and was surprised when I found myself crying the whole way home.

Because I took the day off, I snapped out of it pretty quickly. We were very pleased with Matthew's report card. He had slipped a little third marking period, and he picked things back up this last quarter to finish strong. His incentive was getting a new "full keyboard" phone and not a trac-fone . . . which apparently "isn't even a real cell phone, Mom." I wasn't going for it after 5th , but for 7th grade I could relent on that *if* he had a good report card. We went right over to the cell phone store after lunch, and he has been setting it up and getting used to it.

Many memories are flooding forward, and we have some nice keepsakes from his time at his school. It was a quality, nurturing environment in which he really matured academically and socially, and I am grateful he was able to be in the same school from K all the way through 6th grade. We are ready for the next phase. I think.