Graduation.Saturday June 5,2010

Today I blubbed. And then I blubbed a bit more. It was our son’s graduation from The Pennington School, his prep school in New Jersey that he has been to since we came back to the United States in 2004.

This, in itself is quite a feat. In all our travels around the world we have never managed to stay in one place more than 18 months, (with the exception of the Philippines where we stayed a little over 2 years). The shortest stay was in Israel where Steve was based for 6 months and the children and I were there for the summer holidays.

You may wonder then how we managed to stay in the United States for 5 years before we left for Brazil. The answer is simple. Steve had three different positions each a little over a year and a half. Added to that, when an overseas job came up, he didn’t push for his name to be put forward as the timing would have been horrible for the children’s education.

And so it has been that Charles has been at The Pennington School since we came back in 2004. We were very lucky that he was accepted because we only knew that we were leaving France in the middle of August, which didn’t give us a huge amount of time to get schools sorted. We came for a flying visit in the third week of August to try and sort out a school for him. This is where a big company like BMS can really help. We were given the help of an agent who, from what I can gather has the most amazing connections with the admissions directors of the local private schools and within the space of 24 hours had arranged interviews with four of them.

We stepped off the plane that August of 2004 and made Charles sit his SSAT exams the following day. Then there was a round of interviews over the course of the next two days and miraculously, Charles was accepted at Pennington. Now it has to be said, that Pennington was always top of the list and it has turned out to be the most perfect place for him. Thank you to everyone involved in the admissions process and to the family that had turned down a place, making it possible for Charles to attend.

Six years, and tens of thousands of dollars later Charles graduated Magna Cum Laude. To us Brits, this whole graduation thing is rather strange as we have nothing like it in the UK. Graduation there normally consists of a final end of year assembly, with the obvious parting words from the head master.

In the United States it is a major event. On Friday night there was a Senior/Parent dinner, followed by dancing. There were various mini performances by the students and the school band played. It was a great time to catch up with the other parents that have shared this journey with us. The comments were all along the lines “how did it go so fast?”, and “where is your son/daughter going to college?” We laughed and generally had a good time.

And so to today. The weather was hot and the seats had been set up under the trees. There was a lovely breeze and the Class of 2010 came in, in gowns and mortar boards behind their teachers, trustees and faculty members, serenaded by an Irish pipe band. There were numerous speeches, songs by the “Senior Chorus” and then came the Salutatory Address and the Valedictory Address. All of which was moving and heartfelt. There were prizes given for all manner of things. I was thrilled when Charles won the “Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in History.” Even better, the prize was “The Lion and the Unicorn – Gladstone versus Disraeli – how perfect.

Then came the actual Graduation part. Every student was called up individually to receive his or her diploma. With a hundred or so students it was quite a sight. There is also a quaint tradition that where a student has a close relative that has graduated from Pennington or faculty member as a parent, then their diploma is given by that person and not the head of school. There was much hugging and I have to say that the outpouring of goodwill and happiness today was quite a sight to see.

My British “stiff upper lip” was nowhere in sight. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.