Congratulations Andrew!

Tonight marked an important milestone in Andrew’s life – he graduated from high school. Andrew has been home schooled since the fourth grade under the umbrella of New Covenant School.

During the days leading up to the ceremony, everyone was busy getting prepared. Susan had recently returned from Virginia with her mother and sister. She was busy running from store to store, buying decorations. Andrew was busy putting the final touches on his valedictorian speech. And I was busy putting together the program for the ceremony and putting in my final hours at work to reach 80 for the pay period.

As the ceremony drew near, Susan and her family left to decorate that hall, while Andrew gathered is cap and gown. Once Mom arrived, we went to the ceremony, too. At the church, Susan’s mom and sister were busy taping pictures to poster boards and decorating the tables. Andrew and Susan were busy with rehearsals.

As the time approached 7:00, guest started to arrive. Two families from our neighborhood attended and were browsing the poster boards. At 7:00, we entered the sanctuary. Susan was struggling to set up her phone on a tripod to stream on Facebook Live. Finally, we got it set up and the ceremony began.

Andrew had one “classmate” at New Covenant. As a result one was valedictorian and the other was salutatorian. Dijae, the salutatorian, gave her speech first. She talked about her “abusive” relationship with math, her experience with COVID, and learning to drive with her grandfather. Then she thanked the teachers, her family, and her friends.

Andrew, as the valedictorian, also gave a speech. Andrew was dealing with a sore throat, so talking was a challenge for him. He started with a few jokes, then talked the plus side of home schooling, like having time to explore his interests and go on trips while others were in school. He also talked about overcoming challenges, like writing a speech. At one point, he talked about overcoming distractions, at which point he pulled out his phone and played with it for a few moments, then realizing that he was distracted, got back to his speech. Andrew's message was, "Loosen up in stressful situations. Don't be too hard on yourself to get things right the first time. It's better to have something that is not quite perfect than nothing at all. You can always improve it later."

After the speeches, the students walked across the stage and received their diplomas.

Andrew with his diploma

After the ceremony, we took pictures, then walked to the reception hall. Susan introduced everyone to her family. Everyone mingled and ate snacks. The kids played with the balloons. Afterwards, we stayed to help clean up, then went to Rita's for dessert.

The program is included below.

The announcement is below.

Andrew's graduation announcement