Better Than High School Musical

Background: when i graduated from HS, i skipped the ceremony to go mountain biking in Canmore. I missed the grad dinner 'cause i was accidentally very late, and also got held up when security hassled me and my date for being "inappropriately dresssed", and skipped the parties afterwards. (typical teenage rebellion) In my mom's words: "You passed high school. How hard is that?"

This year was my school's first graduating class. The school's 3 years old, so those gr 10'ers have completed the trial, somehow or another. All 19 of 'em have at least got conditional acceptance at Canadian universities. And the $ to do so.

Yes, i griped about the extra duties i took on, organizing a bunch of media stuffs for the ceremony and dinner party, for a bunch of students i've never taught.

But in the end i must say it was all worth it. Although at least 3 of them were nodding off during the preliminary speeches, as soon as their beloved teacher began a wonderful speech about his years w/ them, the tears started flowing.

Then during dinner and stuff, a few more tears. Then after the boys had a drink or 2, they decided to add 1 more performance to the bill to sing a song (and it sounded a hell of a lot better than when they were sober). Then 1/2 way through the girls decided to jump on stage with them. Then they called their homeroom teacher into the mix, and it shortly transformed into a group hug w/ most of the gang bawling. Then my coworker pointed out all the parents who were crying. Next thing you know, I'm hollering and clapping and misty eyed myself. Music blaring in the background. It was pretty f'ing hilarious. Gosh i really never realized how totally entertaining it can be to watch people's eyes turn into fountains. i was loving every minute of it.

Truthfully, my expectations were quite low, but it ended up EPIC. Yes, there were lame-ass speeches about Studying Hard and The Future Is Yours and other BS by people who don't know shit about these individuals (all made doubly boring by requisite translations). But then vicariously hopping onto their emo-rollercoaster ride was great, as aided by the beer (5 glasses uncomfortably served to me by my own gr 11 students, all wearing unnecessarily sexy server's uniforms). "Hey Ivana, can you go get me another beer? I think my students know I'm getting drunk."