Senior Sendoff 2025

 At the end of every school year the town puts on a parade for the graduating seniors. The police, fire, and sheriff’s departments escort school buses full of seniors around the square, through the main drag of town and to the other school buildings. The seniors wear their caps and gowns and march up and down the halls of the elementary, middle and high school buildings, all to much cheering and fanfare. 

Gary and I dutifully headed to the square, on the corner of Maple and Main. But the odd thing was that right at that corner was a swarm of honey bees!  Some were on the sidewalk and some were on the street sign.  

Eventually, by the time the parade went by, all of the bees were up on the street sign.  

We could hear the sirens of the parade coming and when they got to where I could see them I started videoing recording.  But then some lady walked right out underneath the bee swarm, so my video doesn’t show the seniors going by; it goes all wonky and shows myself and another lady trying to warn this lady who was standing right under the bees.

So pretty much what I got was Ellen waving out the window of a school bus  

The above is a screenshot of an enlargement of this one below:

But that’s my girl!  She finished in the top 10% of her class and has so many cords and honors and whatnot that I can’t keep track of them.

In the picture she is so excited and pumped up, but now she is feeling the let down.  The FBLA teacher emailed out the list of officers for next year and her name isn’t on it. This crushed her.  I know that she will get involved in college clubs and events next year, though.  But I totally understand the let down, the empty feeling.  

As for me, it wasn’t until I heard the sirens a few blocks over that it hit me and I started to tear up.  Just from the poignancy of it I guess; my baby is out of grade school now.  These years went by so fast.