by K M Draughn

Created on: May 11, 2009

It is graduation season, a time for beginning anew. I attended my nephews high school graduation on Friday night of last week The school that he graduated from is small one, kindergarten through 12 under on roof, and there were only twenty-one in the graduating class. I have been to many graduations both large and small, but for some reason this one touched my heart.

The auditorium was about normal size for a high school, and it was packed beyond capacity, they were standing all over the room, for twenty-one seniors, and this did include one set of triplets, this was a great crowd.

What got to me was the Valedictorian's speech. Most of the time when you hear these types of speeches it is thank you for helping me.... Or I did this.... Or what I will be doing..., her speech was not like this. She praised her fellow students, and then went down the line to say what she thought each one of them would be doing in 10 years, then went back to say something about each one of them, their personality or how she felt about them. I realize that if had been a large class she could not have done this, but it being a small class allowed her to be able to take this time and focus on them and not just herself. And again, the small class allowed her to know each one of her class mates. I myself graduated from a small school, and there were only forty-five in our class, and a lot of us still keep in touch. She said something else, about how many of them would still be friends in ten years, I looked over and my son and his wife both of whom have been out of high school 4 and 5 years were counting on one hand their close friends, both of them graduated from schools where there were four or five hundred graduates.

At the end of this young ladies speech, there were a lot of snubbing going around me, because a lot of the folks in that room were crying.

My nephew got his diploma, and we are very proud of him, for more than one reason, his parents held him back in third grade, he was struggling, that is the year they moved he and my niece to this school. He was bound and determined to graduate when he should, so he talked to his guidance councilor and they told him if he could pass the GED they would allow him to walk with his class, and he ACED it, so actually he received two diplomas, he ended up with enough credits to graduate and get his GED too.

He has already gotten a full time job, working for the town they live in, he is the "water man....." when his name was mentioned in the valedictory speech, she saw him as the mayor of the town in ten years...

Another thing about this graduation, they prayed, and every speech mentioned the Lords name... and I believe the Lord was there with all of us that night.

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