Con"grad"ulations

Last night I dressed up and went to the 2008 grad. I watched ~150 young people walk across a stage and receive their passport to their future.
Grad is a beautiful thing... full of hopes and dreams and the idealism of youth. Nobody walks across the stage thinking, "Gee, I can't wait to get my welfare check" or "Yeehaw, now I can get a dead-end job". Instead, it's all about being as successful as possible. It really is an uplifting event.
Strangely, I sat alone in a crowd. Trevor's been to enough grads for kids I teach, I let him off the hook this year. I walked in and I could not find one single teacher I knew. I sat with some kid's family. I cheered loudly for the 20 kids I taught this year and I went home. As lonesome as it was, I don't think I'd want to miss it. Grad is the icing on the cake for a high school teacher.
Tomorrow is my last day of school for the year. Just 4 more sleeps until our big trip...