The continuation ceremony for Skinner Middle School was held at North High School where many of the students will attend as a freshman next year. Miss S is moving on to high school with honors in music and attendance. She is an incredibly accomplished musician who wrote a mashup of a couple pop songs which a quintet played for families as they took their seats for the event. During the ceremony, Miss S was awarded music student of the year (no surprise) and received an award, along with 10 other students, for having 100% attendance. Later she told me she went to school with a 103 degree fever for two days because she was so determined to win that award. Crazy kids. It was heartwarming and sweet to see how so many of the kids broke up after the ceremony, openly crying in the hallway as they said goodbye to middle school, to each other, and in my own mind, to childhood. It was bittersweet to see all these young kids looking so grown up, so adult-like both in their outer appearance and also in their personal conduct. There was poignancy in seeing moments when they started acting like kids again, and then caught me watching them and reverted to their dispassionate teen personae.
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