by Haddy B. Hurley

Created on: June 26, 2008   Last Updated: May 21, 2009

I was a freshman in highschool, attending the graduation to perform music for the ceromony. The upper classman in my school's orchestra told me how much fun it was and that I was really going to love it. The night before I took at least three hours picking out the perfect outfit and deciding the perfect way to wear my hair. As for the musical part of my prepartaion for the ceromony I was not in the least bit worried. The music we were playing was extremely simplistic. Another excting aspect of the graduation was getting to see my senior friends get their diplomas and passage to the rest of their lives. One prospect I did not consider the night before graduation is that the seniors, that made up one fourth of the family I call school, were now leaving my life and not coming back.

At eleven thirty I arrived at school to prepare and warm up with the orchestra. As we started setting up I observed the families and friends of the graduates sitting in the stands, anxiously awaiting their loved one's acknoledment of acheivment. Then the ceremony began. My orchestra began the monotonous but ceremonial song of "Pomp and Cercumstance" and the graduates came gracefully walking in through the doors to their seats in the middle of the autatorium. A few of the audience members began to tear up and I could not decipher why.

The principle stood up and gave his speech and intoduced the valadictorian of the class of 2008. It was the speech that the valedictorian gave that made me realize that a graduation is just as sad as a funeral but at the same time equivalent to the happiness of your wedding. Both events emotional enough to cause tears therefore causing people to cry at graduations. His speech expanded upon the closing chapters of their lives that consisted of their childhood. He told of how most of them were never going to see each other ever again in life and that they were now entering a world of work and competition. While this can be taken in two ways, a door closing and a new door opening. Until this time I had not even given the slightest thought that I may not ever see these people, my friends, ever again.

As I watched my friends recieve their diplomas and the passage to the rest of their lives, I myself began to cry. I cried for more reasons that I will ever be able to explain. I cried for the loss of the friends I had made in the past year, I cried for the realization that in three short years that would be me walking away from my childhood into adulthood, and

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