My second oldest son graduated from college last week.  Although he was not planning on “walking the line”, some extended family was going to fly in, and we were going to take him to dinner.  My niece was graduating college this same week in another state (thus the calendar checking) and a large reunion was planned for that event.  On the other side of the country, another niece and nephew (twins) graduated high school.  Lastly, my granddaughter graduated from Kindergarten last week.

We celebrated my son’s graduation with a HUGE yard sign in the front yard for several weeks.  He tolerated it more than liked it I think but was a good sport about we parents making a “to do” over him because we are so proud of him.  (Parent brag warning: He graduated magna cum laude with a 4.2 GPA.) Restaurants were not open yet but we had a little mini family celebration with the kids who were in town. Thai food takeout is almost as good as going to a restaurant.My brother-in-law, who is more creative than we are, organized a large virtual support team for our out-of-state niece.  We did a video “shout out” on the college Instagram page for her and sent written congratulations to be included in a graduation binder for her.  (Aunt brag warning: She won several awards from her department and graduated summa cum laude.)

This past Friday, we did a Zoom party to congratulate this niece which was a lot of fun to be part of.  We all made a video clip of action shots of us saying congratulations, which was fun.  Being novices at anything related to a video, it was a bit of a challenge for us.  The first try was in slow-mo, the second try was without sound and the third try was OK.

My niece and nephew twins, also in another state, did a drive-by graduation line at their school.  We have noticed a lot of schools in our area doing the same thing and have supplied banners and other graphics for that purpose.  It works, sort of.  The main thing is to get some pictures of the moment, which my sister-in-law was able to do with the twins.

My six-year-old niece did a drive through graduation with her grandma.  Since it was kindergarten, the cars got to slow down long enough to get a Popsicle handed in through the window.  She got some whooping and called out congratulations as she rode through the line.  Other than that, the cars had to keep moving without a chance for pictures.  Of course, there will be plenty of other graduations for her through her school years, from 5^th grade, middle school and from high school and am sure the world will be more normal then.

For now though; is this not the strangest graduation season ever?  We must congratulate these kids virtually or through drive-bys, unable to fly to a reunion or even congregate at a restaurant.  This will be the year that “wasn’t” in terms of graduation lines.

It will be a story to tell for the next generation.  Hopefully, we get through this pandemic as quickly as possible and it’s another hundred years before another hits.

Stay safe everyone and congratulations to all those graduates out there.