I hope Sam remembers this day as well as I do. It was about as perfect a day as you could have, and I am so proud of everything he has done to get to this point. That morning began with us preparing on how to get the kids out of school and make sure we got Sam to the graduation on time at Samford. Sam was in an irritable mood, but I think it was because he was afraid that if we drove, we would be late. I had to calm him down and ask him who he thought he was talking to. I have got so much padding in this schedule, that you will have no problems getting to that graduation on time. Haha, if he wad dealing with just his mom, which he was during the original discussions, there may be a concern of being late, but I am typically ridiculously early (one reason he and Ruby ride to church always with me, while the late crew go with Magan).
After leaving the house, we stopped to pick up Belle at the middle school. Belle asked if we were getting any food, and I said, not till after the graduation. But then I told her that Ruby (our always packed and ready gal) had some snacks if she was hungry. Ruby cracked me up saying "Now why did you have to say that".
We made it to graduation in plenty of time, even time to stop at a coffee shop for Belle to change dresses before we parked. Then we got in the line of crazy parents trying to get into the arena, but it did not open until 1PM. We incorrectly chose the left side of the stage thinking that kids usually walk right to left across the stage, but not for this event. We quickly found some seats (taking nearly a whole row) only two steps down into the lowel bowl area. Then I just had to make sure all of our guests arrived and found us.
First was to get MawMaw to one of the parking areas where she could walk directly in without having to take many stairs. Everything worked well, and I watched as Granddad parked in one of the areas I thought that handicap would be able to park, then he got out alone. So he had the easy entry with no stairs, while he dropped Granny and MawMaw on the other side of the building at the stairway. Hahaha...it was not funny at the time, but I was in full coordinator mode and frustrated my plans were not followed. But I got Granddaddy in to Magan, then ran the other way to get Granny and MawMaw to the elevator and down to our seats.
Second was to get Lisa to our seats, and I knew it was going to be close as she texted me that she was 38 minute out approximately 38 minutes before the graduation was to begin. I had everything arranged with a lady on one side of the building, I gave her Lisa's ticket and said she would be coming right at 2PM. Then the text got hilarious when Lisa got on campus..."I'm here, am I going to the weight center"...then "I'm marching up a hill". I told her the Hanna Center is on a hill, and her reply was "That doesn't help. This place is big. I will keep walking". I dropped a pin to help, but later learned she can't use those things. And then she was in...in the lobby...but apparently both of us looking at our phones, and we still missed each other. But finally I saw her, we shared a laugh, and walked into the end of the the 370 graduates marching in. This series of texts still has me laughing, including the picture of a map of the college she randomly sent me. Lisa...this was so funny.
After the graduation, Magan went one way to get pictures of Sam, while I took the rest of the crew out the other way towards Grandaddy's car. We got some good pictures after Magan found Sam and brought him out to us. Lisa got to meet MawMaw and later shared with me something she said while talking with Lisa "I did something I didn't realize was on my bucket list...taking a trip with my grandson" speaking of our road trip last year. Glad mawmaw got to meet our good friend Lisa.
After we left, the plan was for us all to meet up at MELT, a restaurant me and Sam had tried once before, but no one else had tried. And apparently I had the secret parking spot because I was out onto lakeshore and over to Melt before Granddaddy had even made it out of the campus. But Magan had some fun taking pictures with the angel wings, and we loaded up on some appetizers while we waited...Two orders of mac and cheese egg rolls and one order of BBQ on potato chips. So good, but we were also so starving. But prior to beginning our appetizers, we needed to say the prayer, and thinking that this was a big day for Sam, I asked him to say it. Then he said a really excellent prayer for himself and future plans. It only dawned on me during the middle of this prayer was that this was typically not one you said yourself, but one others would say for you. We all laughed that I got Sam to say his own prayer, and he was even surprised I asked him. Oh well, I told him he said everything we would have said for him.
We timed our orders perfectly and had the orders from Granny, Granddad and MawMaw ready as soon as they walked in. The food was delicious, but where was Lisa. Hahaha, another funny set of texts..."I'm going to pass on Melt, but thank you. Imma be real. I just sat down. I still can't find my car". I asked her if she was still at Samford later, also asking if she needed me to reach out to local police, and making sure she had a whistle to call for help. She replied "LOL. STOP. One of Brandon [Rawls] coworkers came down and showed me where to go". Hahaha...I kept smiling thinking of Lisa wondering around yelling at random people "I am a grown and independent woman! Now where did I park". Lisa...thank you so much for coming. Sam was happy you could be there...and I can now laugh at this day for a long time. :)
Then we drove home. Sam told us about his ears being blasted by 370 names coming from that speaker right in front of him. One of the girls asked him how he knew which hat was his when they threw them up. "Mine was the one with all the hot glue, and my name in it". Haha. Magan and I am sure impressed the kids by singing the Good Hope Alma Mater. Then Sam told us about the letter he wrote to himself during freshman year, and they handed back to them on this day. It was really cool how much worked our for him, but then we all starting cracking up because Davis has no recollection of this task. We all started guessing about what Davis might have said, because he probably did not treat it seriously at all...he probably said he would be scuba diving, or riding a giant sea turtle...Hahaha, what a day...it was ended watching the Heat lose to the Celtics, then laughing together watching the latest John Crist comedy special on Youtube.
"Sam Junkin,
So far my impression of high school has been good. The freedoms and half-time seem to be big ups. I at first felt anxiety and I was unsure of what would happen next but sure enough, I figured things out. I think I am going to have a great time here. I ate chicken nuggets for lunch. My friends are Brandon, Benton, Palmer, and Catherine. So far I have had mostly As. I'm in the Boy Scouts still and I hope by then (or now) that I am an eagle scout. I hope that high school was great and fun and that I did well.
I hope that things such as 3D printing and ping pong will still excite me. I hope I will still have good friends and clean speech. Have I cause I hope I have changed for the better to be smarter and kinder. Do I still want to go to college and become an engineer, tell me if I change my mind. Make sure to get a good degree and scholarship. Whatever I do, I hope I enjoyed it cause by that time this will be it. Your done with high school. Did you do it right?
See you later
Be you later
Bye Yourself
Sam Junkin"
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