Graduation - Class of 2026

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

   

Oh my gosh.  The years.  They were so short.  Here we are at graduation day and we could not be more proud of you, sweet girl.  Graduation was at 7:00pm, but Emily had to be there at 3:30 for practice - a long day.  We were lucky - all the highest honors kids got their diplomas first.  So we didn't have to wait long for the action!  They had 3 speakers - including Emily's friend Iqraa (salutatorian) and all three were good which was nice.  They also kept the ceremony very upbeat - not intentionally sad - which I really appreciated.

   

   

There were about 300 in the graduating class and Emily finished 10th.  She was thrilled.  After the ceremony there was lots of time for pictures and meeting up with friends and family.  I had a hard time choosing which pics to post here because there were so many good ones.

From Left: Charlotte, Iqraa, Emily & Riya - these girls were the best of friends!

   

   

   

All the cords and stoles had meaning on their robes.  Emily had a cord for community service hours, a cord for pickleball, a cord for her AP Scholar with Honors designation, her white stole for highest honors and the blue collar was special just for NHS officers.  Also, she had a gold medal for her NHS service.  Then, down the right hand side of her honors stole, she wore her USFS gold medals and her pins from NQS and Excel nationals.  You can see those in the pic of her with Charlotte, Iqraa and Riya and the one just above with her Kenneth and Kian.  Her dance coach, Mischa, also gave her a little white ice skate charm that she wore on her tassel.  You can kind of see it in the picture just above (with her, Charlotte and Gabby).  You can kind of also see it in the pic of her with Grandma.  In the big group pic just above, those are some of the NHS officers and seniors with their NHS advisor Mr. Squire.  Emily really liked him.

After all the pictures and fanfare, the kids were off to Project Graduation at the local YMCA where they got to hang out nearly all night.  It was basically a lock in - they went about 10pm and they weren't allowed to leave until 2am.  It was a nice way to try to make sure the kids all had a place to celebrate and all were able to do it safely.  Great way to close out this chapter of her life...and with these friends.  It took them all a while to find each other, but once they did, they really made the best little friend group.  I know they will all miss each other in the fall.

Emily, Kian, Mr. Carte (Chem) Ben & Elizabeth