The Happiest Day of My Life

I can't believe it has finally come. It is a day I have been waiting for since August of 1994. Our last child, the beautiful Kathleen Marie Sykes, graduated from West High.



We started at West with Rachel as a 7th grader in the ELP program in 1994; Sarah in 1996, Rob in 2000, and Kathleen in 2005. Our roots at West go back even further. My parents, Frances Dibble and Scott McKay, were West high graduates.

A friend of mine told me that even though I am ecstatic right now about never having to get up at 6:30 am and beat a child to school (metaphorically speaking), one day I will drive by the school and get a little wistful, perhaps even teary-eyed, as I think back on all the memories of good times at West.

No more parent-teacher conferences, cross-country meets, tennis matches, dance concerts, back-to-school nights, A Capella trips and dinner/auction fund raisers. No more PTA meetings and folding parties for the school newsletter. No more swim meets, fines, automated calls telling me my student was absent or tardy one or more periods today. No more children telling me it was their sibling that was tardy or absent one or more periods today. No more trying to figure out if it was a red or black day and when each child was supposed to be home and why they were home early. No more homework, IB/AP tests, USBSCT tests, CRT's. No more online classes, no more worrying if the grades would get to the registrar on time to qualify for graduation. No more bad school pictures.

In other words, one less source of stress in my life.

Congratulations, Kathleen (and me!). We graduated.

Once a Panther (and Panther Parent), always a Panther.