‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the Season                         

 When you hear ‘tis the season, you usually conjure up images of packages wrapped in festive paper hidden beneath an evergreen tree covered with sparking baubles and lit with twinkling lights. Not today.

‘Tis the Season of GRADUATION. A graduate is any student who has completed a set course of studies and received a diploma or degree. Whether the student has completed kindergarten, or middle school, high school or received a bachelor degree from university, his or her parents couldn’t be prouder.

My youngest son recently graduated from The Art Institute of Vancouver, Culinary Arts Restaurant Ownership. My husband and I attended the ceremony, and we couldn’t have been prouder of his accomplishment. Within the pages of the graduation ceremony program were these words by William Arthur Ward, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.” These students had done that.

There will be thousands of parents proudly watching, probably a little teary eyed, while their sons and daughters graduate from high school and university in the next few weeks. Many of those parents will be wondering where the time went. Weren’t those kids just babies in diapers a few years ago? Congratulations to all the students graduating this spring. Hard work does pay off. And now your whole life is ahead of you!  Enjoy the journey.

For those parents and grandparents of babies still crawling or gingerly walking around the furniture not quite brave enough to take that first step, some day you’ll be watching them walk across the stage in cap and gown receiving a diploma, too. In the meantime, READ TO THEM. Encourage every child or grandchild to become an avid reader while he or she works their way through elementary, middle and high school. And those children, too, will imagine a dream, and through hard work and encouragement, they will achieve it!

Congratulations to all Students in every Graduating Class of 2012!

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