The time has come!! Some of my sweet preschool friends are moving on to the ‘big school’ next year. To celebrate we have graduation… imagine it like a wilder version of the traditional graduation scene. People in gowns, hats and tassels, nervous parents and siblings seated in the audience, speeches given by teachers who prefer to not talk in front of large groups of adults, and students being bribed… with bubbles … to sit nicely and listen.

It’s a impressively organized (not to toot my own horn, but TOOT TOOT!) and well put together event. I might be jinxing myself… maybe I should have written this the morning after graduation.

Watching a group of five year olds march down the aisle to ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ (in an actual line without poking or running into anybody) will make any teacher tear up with pride and joy. Viewing our slideshow of the last two years they’ve spent with me generally has the parents pulling out the Kleenexes. But the best moment has to be watching them all march out at the end, holding their diplomas and bubble wands, smiling their biggest smiles at their parents.

The joy in that moment, for all involved, is what I hope they carry with them. The love, pride, sense of accomplishment (even if all it really amounts to was surviving preschool!) and feeling of community is one I hope transcends our hour long celebration at a random point of their lives in Alaska. It’s something I think a lot of people forget to give themselves: a moment to celebrate.

So tomorrow at My Favorite Preschool’s Graduation in Chugiak, Alaska- We Will Celebrate!!! And then eat cake.