Emily is now officially a high school student!  Myndi and Vann and Danette and I all sat together at the ceremony, which was nice – we all congratulated each other and I could see my relief and joy mirrored on their faces.   I got giant leaping hugs from the girls, but when I tried to take photos, I realized I was getting in the way of some important agendas:  Angie was busy flirting, and Emily was busy looking for trouble.  Poor things; it’s dreadfully awkward trying to flirt while parents take photos, and it’s practically impossible to get into trouble by roaming totally empty hallways on the last day of school.  But they both did their very best, lord love ’em.

On my my way out I stood in the parking lot and watched the 6th and 7th graders having their field day, and just leaned my head against the fence and cried.  I am — still — so proud, and so relieved, and so worried, and so happy, and so jealous, and so grateful.  When I think about everything we’ve all been through together over the last few years, it takes my breath away.

I am totally dissatisfied with this little movie, by the way.  The best film clips I had (Emily walking across the stage and cleaning out her locker) won’t come off my phone.  I have vowed never again to take phone-movies:  phones are phones and cameras are cameras and that is that.   And Angie sang “So Small” during the ceremony and honestly I think her version was a million times prettier than the Carrie Underwood recording.  But alas, phones also don’t do a great job with audio tracks.  I’m hoping some time this summer she’ll sing it again for us and Paul can record it properly.

Emily and Angie in the fountain, in the backseat, in boxes; Emily all goth-eyed, Angie in bows and ribbons; dress-up games and sleeping til noon; the braces, the bandaids, the boys… …and the girls!  Oh, the friendships!  Oh, the fights!  Girls this age love each other with a ferocity much more powerful than all the little stings and slights of adolescence combined.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

How about love?
Measure in love.

_____________

It’s so easy to get lost inside
a problem that seems so big at the time.
It’s like a river that’s so wide
it swallows you whole.
While you siting ’round thinking ’bout what you can’t change
and worrying about all the wrong things
time’s flying by
moving so fast —
you better make it count ’cause you can’t get it back.

Sometimes that mountain you’ve been climbing
is just a grain of sand
and what you’ve been up there searching for forever
is in your hands.
Oh when you figure out love is all that matters after all
it sure makes everything else seem so small.