Aggravation Station: Another Milestone

With his grad gift, Beats headphones.

June 24th my first born graduated Grade 8....I cannot begin to get a grasp on how quickly the first part of his life has flown by. It has literally just slipped through my fingers.

With his little brother.

With his mom and Eric

I'd been both dreading this day and looking so forward to it. I'm truly heartbroken that my dad wasn't able to be there. I can picture in my mind him sitting there amongst us with pride, clapping, hooting and hollering not with us, but leading us. I know everyone says he was there, but it's not the same. So that makes me sad.

On a heartwarming note Gage came to me an hour or so before we had to leave and asked me if it would be alright to bring Grandpa's pocket watch with him to the ceremony. With a smile I said of course, that's a wonderful idea. (Secretly I thought he might forget that we had previously talked about doing just that). He placed the watch gingerly in his left front pocket, right next to his heart where I know Grandpa always rests.

With his mom and dad.

We had to be at the hall a little early to ensure all the graduates were there on time and I'll be honest, I was excited to take pictures and see all of his friends dressed up. I like Gage's friends. I really truly do. They are a good group of guys, and girls for that matter. Most of them I've known since kindergarten so it was nice for me to see how far they have all come.

I had an opportunity to meet Katelyn's (his lady friend) mom, Michelle. Much to my both mine and Michelle's delight she's as tattooed as I am and very lovely to speak with. She spoke highly of Gage and commended me on doing a wonderful job with him. She said he's very polite at her house and treats Katelyn with respect. I'm SOOOO glad. I've been doing my diligent work to ensure he treats girls properly and with respect. I want him to pick up good habits when it comes to girls at an early age and I think it's probably best if it's me that teaches him those habits. It's good to have another girl's perspective on girls when you're a boy and have no idea how our sex works. :)

With his mom and Andrea.

With his lady, Katelyn.

Gage got Katelyn a wrist corsage and had bought her a blue sapphire necklace (which she wore for the grad ceremony) for her graduation gift while they were away in Quebec for their year end class trip. D'awwwww. They are so adorable.

The ceremony was quite long as there were four graduating classes, but being a mom who knows so many of these kids it didn't seem too long to me. I think I was the only one. The graduates were so supportive of one another and I'm so glad Gage got to be part of that group. The genuinely seem like a great group of kids. There didn't seem to be any cases of bullying at school this year and every seemed to be friends with everybody. That was so nice to be witness to.

Receiving his diploma.

I was filled with the typical pride a parent has when he walked across that stage to accept his diploma. But later in the evening I was overwhelmed with pride when they announced his name as the recipient of the school's "student with the most personal growth" award. I'm almost glad I had to get up and go snap a photo of him accepting the award or I likely would have burst into tears. It was at that moment I really wished my dad was there. Gage has come so far this year, I can't even begin to get my head around it. I know my dad was aware of this but I guess I just wish he was around to see Gage get recognized by the school for it. Anyway, I wanted to run over to him in front of everyone and just hug the shit out of him.

Receiving his award for Student with the most Personal Growth!!

With Aunt Anita and cousins: Sebastian and Sawyer.

With a group of boys from school.

After the ceremony as we all filed out of the hall pass the graduates I stopped to tell him how proud I was of him and he reached over and hugged me. Didn't say a word, just hugged me like he hasn't hugged me in years. So hard. His complete doing too, I didn't even request that kind of hug. I miss those hugs, but I guess because of their rarity when I get them without asking they are just that much better. I love my kid so much. I like my kid so much. I have been truly blessed. I hope I'll still be able to make those statements this time next year...after his first year of high school.