Congrats to 5th Graders

I’m not an overly sappy kind of guy.  Or maybe it’s sentimental.  Yeah that’s it, I’m not an overly sentimental kind of guy.  Or maybe it’s emotional.  Okay yeah, I’m not an overly emotional kind of guy.  Basically I’m not real warm and fuzzy when it comes to “special occasions.”  If you’re looking for someone to join in on some over-the-top celebration I’m the wrong guy. 

It’s your birthday?  Great.  Happy birthday.  Save me a piece of cake.  It’s Christmas?  Wonderful.  Merry Christmas.  What did you get me?  You got a big promotion and raise at work?  Fantastic.  Dinner is on you.  You just got engaged?  Awesome.  Is your fiancé hot?  Does she have a sister? 

And on the flip-side, I’m not going to kick a man when he’s down.  I’m not going to make a big deal out of someone’s bad news.

You got fired?  That sucks.  We should fire-bomb your boss’s house.  Your wife is leaving you?  Not good.  I never liked the bitch anyway.  Your car just broke down?  I’m sorry.  Do you need a ride?  Oh you’re going to O’Hare?  Call a cab. 

I’m just not going to do too much celebrating of the good OR the bad.  Life runs its course and I think we’re just along for the ride.  Good things happen and that’s great.  Bad things happen and that’s too bad.  But you just keep grinding it out with little fanfare.  Hey that’s me. 

But on Monday my 11-year-old son graduates from the 5^th grade.  His six years of elementary school are over, and he’ll be heading to the junior high in the fall where he’ll spend three years before heading off to high school.

Now the school and the teachers and the PTO and the 5^th grade moms have already gone ABOVE AND BEYOND in celebrating this event.  There have been special lunches, variety shows and assemblies.  Full-color yearbooks have been handed out.  And each student was given a 30-minute DVD complete with live video of school functions dating back to their days as young kindergarteners and baby pictures of each of the kids set to a rocking soundtrack.  Literally, there were parts of this thing that Spielberg himself would have been impressed with.   

And I think there’s even one more function planned for Monday which is their official last day of school.  So NO ONE can make the argument that these graduating 5^th graders have been cheated out of anything.  The last few weeks have been plenty special.  So much so that I wasn’t  sure I was going to do anything other than pat my son on the back and say “way to go” (which I believe is exactly what my dad did when I graduated from elementary school).

But the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that this 5^th grade graduation is indeed a big deal.  My son and his classmates deserve a big “congrats.”   They made it through six years of school during their early childhood.  And while pretty much all of these kids have nice parents and enjoy good upbringings they have nonetheless persevered and stuck together and figured it all out from the time they were five until now.  That’s not easy. 

People make a big deal about turning 16, and yet you haven’t done anything.  Sure, you’re now legally able to drive, but all you’ve done is turned a year old.  Same with turning 21.  Everyone makes a big deal about it, and obviously the law states that you can now legally buy a beer, but again, you’ve just gotten a year older. 

Making it through six years of school and coming out confident, relatively well-adjusted and smiling, is an accomplishment worth celebrating.

These kids have grown up together.  During this time some of them have lost a parent or certainly a grandparent.  Some of them have seen their moms and dads split up.  They’ve had to wave goodbye to a few pals who moved away.  They’ve had to make the adjustment from the fun classroom atmosphere of 1^st and even 2^nd grade to the more structured academic atmosphere of 4^th and 5^th grade.

Now I’m certainly not suggesting that these six years of elementary school are going to be the toughest for our kids.  Far from it.  Frankly these last six years were probably some of the best our kids will ever have.  What’s not to like about being 9 or 10 or 11 years old?  Come on. 

But to just shrug this accomplishment off as being easy is probably not fair.  They have achieved a lot and have grown up a lot, and they’ve done it right in front of our faces.

The next step (junior high) will be even more difficult and even more challenging.  Some of their best pals will probably be nothing more than casual acquaintances by the time they graduate from junior high, and the opposite sex will frustrate them a lot more than any math assignment.  And high school after that, well that will be EVEN MORE challenging.

But first things first, lets enjoy this one.  Let’s help celebrate this accomplishment.

So to my son and all of his classmates . . . hell, to the entire 5^th grade class of 2010 . . . congratulations. 

We will not be throwing you a big party or sending out graduation announcements, and, frankly, you still have to clean your room and pick up all of the plastic guns littering the yard like any other day.  Maybe we’ll take you out for an ice cream.  But know that we’re proud of you.