It was graduation day yesterday for my little Pookie.
It’s trite, I know, but it seems like only yesterday she was reading Where’s Spot and illustrating Wolfy stories.
Now she reads post-colonial Nigerian literature and writes up reports for USAID on agricultural development programs in rural Ethiopia.
She’s a poised and accomplished young woman with a bright future. Congratulations, Alekka, to you and your classmates.
ICS does a lovely graduation ceremony. The gardening and maintenance teams spent all day yesterday transforming the gym with banners, carpets, and an abundance of fresh flowers and garlands. The school band performed “Pomp and Circumstance” with stately grandeur. Adult speakers and the class valedictorian and salutatorian delivered inspirational and heartfelt speeches. The graduates were nervous, excited, respectful, and gracious.
The families, accustomed to ceremonial occasions, dressed sharply and applauded, laughed, and cried (and ululated) at all the right places. Parents and teachers glowed with pride.
In the class video this year, each student thanked his or her family.
And there was fun as well: the teachers surprised the graduates – and the administration – in the middle of the ceremony with a flashmob performance of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (to keep me from youuuu…)
The ceremony was followed by an hors d’oeuvres reception upstairs in the student and faculty commons.
Later we had a little party at home for Alekka and some of her teachers.
And now we await July and the IB results; depending on what they are, this fall Alekka will begin studies at one of these fine institutions.
Lorna of Arabia 