This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

A Series of "Lasts"

With my youngest child graduating from high school, a few parental rituals come to an end

It’s hard to believe that my son Christian is 18 and a high school graduate (Mater Dei Prep had their graduation back on June 4). Our youngest is moving on to college. . .and with it, a lot of things that we did for our kids as parents have come to an end – they’ve happened for the last time.

We experienced the “last” parent-teacher conferences in the first marking period of his senior year. My wife and I always made it a point to touch base with his teachers at least once a year, just to get to know them and find out how well our son was doing. It’s not always a good time during “Back To School Night” (another “last”) to get together with them and talk.

Another “last” was Christian’s choir concerts. Twice a year, my wife and I would head up to Mater Dei Prep to watch him perform on stage with his fellow choir members. During his last two years, Christian would usually have a solo or special song he would perform, but he would never tell us ahead of time, just so we’d be surprised at what he would offer everyone on a particular night’s performance. That little stinker. . .but we always got a big kick out of seeing him up on stage with his friends.

Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Still another “last” was Christian’s plays and musicals. Three times a year, we’d head up to either the Middletown Arts Center or St. Mary’s Parish’s Memorial Hall to see him perform. I’ll miss hearing so many of his fellow student-actors’ parents and friends tell us how great he was on stage after each performance. Over the course of his high school acting career, Christian performed in ten plays and musicals, for which he received two Basie Award nominations as well as numerous awards from other theatre group competitions. He and his fellow actors also performed one of his plays, “Freckleface Strawberry”, for students in Union Beach who were displaced by Hurricane Sandy.

Another “last” is his awards ceremonies, both scholastic and for the arts. Our proudest moment for him was when he won the Bausch & Lomb award his junior year, which is sponsored by the University of Rochester. That award peaked his interest in applying to U of R, which is where he’ll be heading at the end of this summer.

Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Christian received a varsity letter for drama and chorus. For the first time in school history, the drama club, chorus, and sports team members were awarded varsity letters for their achievements. I give kudos to Mater Dei Prep for recognizing the performing arts in their school on an equal footing with athletics.

Then there’s the little “lasts”. . .the last sporting events (basketball games, softball games, etc.), the last time driving him up to school (actually, that happened last year when he turned 17), and the last junior ring ceremony, where students participate in mass and receive their high school rings (another “last” that happened last year, too).

Finally, the last baccalaureate mass, dinner dance, and graduation ceremony. The baccalaureate mass is where many of the senior awards are given out just prior to graduation. Afterwards, the parents and seniors head out to dinner. This year, it was held at the Oyster Point in Red Bank. It’s a great time to sit down with other parents and students to reminisce and update everybody on what the kids will be doing when August rolls around.

For both my daughter’s and son’s graduation ceremonies, they were held in the new church at St. Mary’s. In fact, the year my daughter graduated (2008) was the first year that the new church was used for the ceremony. It’s a beautiful building. . .state-of-the-art, and (thank goodness!) air-conditioned.

Yes, it was a bittersweet day at graduation for us, but life is a journey, not a destination. It entails a series of “lasts”. As parents, we can’t be selfish when it comes to our kids’education. Now with our two kids in college, it’s time for them to fly.

Good luck, Christian, and to all your fellow graduates!

(The entire Jersey Shore Retro Blogography can be found at http://longbranch.patch.com/blogs/kevin-cieris-blog. You can also follow Kevin Cieri's blog on his Facebook page, "Jersey Shore Retro" as well as on Twitter @jsretro).

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?