Ryan’s 6th Grade Promotion

When you have a new baby, it seems like every “older” mother and grandmother says, “Oh, enjoy every minute! He’ll be grown before you know it!” Over the years, I’ve also heard mothers say things like, “I’m enjoying these experiences so much since s/he’s my oldest,” or “I’m trying to savor every moment since s/he’s my youngest.” When Ryan was a newborn in Las Vegas, one of my VTers had her oldest starting kindergarten, and the other had her youngest starting kindergarten. It was always fun to hear their experiences with the same events from different life perspectives.

I’ve really made an effort to enjoy every moment of Ryan’s life. He has always been my oldest, but the moment came when I also realized that he was my youngest. I’m sure every parent has things they wish they had done differently. But I have truly tried to make the most of every moment of Ryan’s life, despite our lives being very different from the way I thought they’d be.

Today we celebrated a milestone – Ryan’s last day of elementary school! I picked up Rara & Papa, and we found pretty good seats in the gym for the program. After a brief introduction by Ms. Rawlins, each 6th grader introduced the next classmate in alphabetical order. It was fun to have Ryan’s long-time friend, Etienne N. introduce Ryan.







After the introduction of each 6th grader, three of Ryan’s classmates spoke: Alissia N., Ashley Q., and Charlotte W. They were all in Ryan’s math class, so I got to know each of them quite well. Alissia is also on the swim team, and I’m good friends with her mom. All three did a great job!



The 6th graders have been practicing singing one of my favorite songs – “One Day” by Matisyahu. Every once in a while Ryan will break into song at home. Since it’s one of my favorite songs (and one of the cool-down songs on my workout playlist), I have often joined in. It was extremely powerful to have the 100-ish 6th graders singing it together!




(Sorry, the video gets shaky a minute into it. I had found a great place to stand where no one would walk in front of me. People kept walking - and standing! - in front of me, so I had to keep moving.)


After the ceremony, each student was given a rose to give to a special person in his or her life. Ryan gave me a beautiful peach/pink colored rose. It is beautiful!

As everyone was exiting the gym, all four of the teachers were standing along the wall. I took a few minutes to hug each one and thank them for what they did for Ryan this year. We gave them all cake pop baskets a few weeks ago, but I wanted to share one more expression of gratitude with each of them. They have all been awesome this year!

We all went into the courtyard and had wrap sandwiches and various cookies and brownies. Rara snapped this picture when Ryan & I were talking, thinking she was getting the camera ready to take our posed picture. She wanted to use the flash for another one, but we were standing in front of one of the tables, and people were waiting for us, so I didn’t let her. :)


Ryan’s math class also spent the entire year building a tetrahedron that was taller than most of the kids! It was on display, along with a poster that explained things about it. Ryan and I walked over to it so I could take a picture of him with it. Just as Ryan was stepping in front of it for a picture, the dad of one of the kids passed out, landing face-first right on one side of the tetrahedron! We quickly moved out of the way as someone in the crowd announced that she was a medic and came over to help. The dad quickly woke up, but had landed literally face-first, without catching himself. He was pretty banged up! After the excitement died down and the dad was safely in a chair, we stepped back over for a picture. (There was still a bit of a crowd around, and the one front corner of the tetrahedron
had been smashed, thus the incomplete picture.)
 

As we left, we snapped a few more pictures of Ryan…

With his home room teacher & student council advisor, Mrs. Schmidt, and his science teacher, Mrs. Larsen…


With his music teacher (through all grades), Mrs. Fischer…

With his social science teacher, Mrs. Taylor…

With the assistant principal and co-student council advisor, Mr. Beer…

With his good friend (who also introduced him in the program), Etienne…

And his principal, Ms. Rawlins…

And, an accomplishment should be noted – Ryan had perfect attendance this year!  (Technically, he missed one day, but it was for the BYU Leadership Conference with the student council.)  We also picked up his report card – straight As again!

There is a steep hill immediately to the south of Ryan’s school with a path up to the neighborhood above.  This is where I have dropped Ryan off and we as a carpool have picked the kids up every day.  I figure Ryan has walked that catwalk over 900 times!  The top of the catwalk is where we have taken Ryan’s “first day of school” picture every year.  Since I’ve volunteered in Ryan’s classes about once a week every year (some years a little more, some a little less), and since that’s where I also park and walk down for every school program, SEP, etc., I figured I’ve also walked the catwalk over 200 times!  As Ryan and I walked up the catwalk, I said, “Can you believe this is the last time we’ll walk up the catwalk?”  We had both held our emotions together pretty well to that point, but for some reason, that was the finality that made us both cry!  Ryan and I have both had some wonderful experiences there and have made great friends there.  We will miss Muir Elementary, but we are anxious for Ryan to move on to bigger and better things.

Speaking of bigger and better things, as soon as we left Muir, we went to Ryan’s junior high and dropped off his registration packet!  His counselor (also our good family friend) was there in the office.  We were able to tell her about Ryan’s day.  She expressed her excitement to have Ryan there next year.  A great way to say good-bye to the tears!

I have been working on a project for Ryan for several months.  I got “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss.  I gathered all of Ryan’s first-day-of-school pictures with all of his teachers from over the years.  I put each picture in the book, and then had each teacher write a note to Ryan.  I thought most of them would be a couple of sentences.  Each teacher took A FULL PAGE!  Their notes are so cute and so touching!  They all made me cry!  One day I picked up the book from one teacher after my volunteer time, and Ms. Rawlins, the principal, saw me carrying it.  She asked me about it.  When I told her what I was doing for Ryan, she asked if she could sign it, and also wrote a full page!  A couple of weeks later, I had the same experience with Mrs. Fischer, Ryan’s music teacher his entire time at Muir.  She also asked to sign it, and wrote a full page!  It was such a neat experience to see how much those teachers love Ryan, and how he touched their lives in their interactions with him.

I am so proud of Ryan for always being such a great student, a wonderful friend to everyone, and a good example to those around him.  I am excited to see what the years ahead hold for Ryan!