Hope's 5th grade graduation

May 20,2013

Today was a celebratory day for Hope as she graduated from Mason Ridge Elementary School. 

During the ceremony, each teacher read the graduate's aspirations for the future.

Here was Hope's aspirations that was read by Mrs. Binder:

"Hope plans to live a simple life in a small home on the beach in Florida. She will be married and have three kids named James, Carly and Mary and a black lab named Max and a puppy named Taylor. She plans on working at Petco while her husband will become a successful doctor. That's good because Hope also wants to travel to Antartica, Africa, North Carolina and Michigan."

     Also during the ceremony, principal Schmerold and administrative intern Dr. Gunn addressed the graduates amongst their family and friends, excerpts from the student's writings that defined the theme of their graduation, "To Infinity and Beyond." Anonymous writings of various students were read during the address that defined key thematic words/phrases such as determination, happiness, courage, enjoying life.  Little did we know until after graduation that Hope's writing about "enjoying life" was featured during the address.  Here is the complete writing in its entirety with the excerpt in bold print that was addressed during the graduation.

Enjoying life could have a lot of definitions. To some people, it means just having fun. But to me it means doing what you love best and not worrying about when you have to stop. Some people give time limits on things which make people more rushed and hurried. But enjoying life shouldn’t have time limits because every second counts.

To a lot of people, setting up pet shops in their cousin’s basement is probably what they did in first grade. But for me, it’s what I do almost every time I see my cousins. I only see them twice every year so I really couldn’t care less if people thought that we were being childish. The parents would usually conference upstairs so we got to redecorate their whole basement. This moment in the basement really captures my attention because there’s endless laughter and a basement full of happiness. I enjoyed every second of it because it felt amazing to forget about my troubles and just be happy with my cousins. Moments like these make me want to slow time down and just have fun.

I’ve always loved sleepovers, but sleepovers at my cousin’s house couldn’t be beat. I couldn’t contain my excitement for the whole day simply because I knew that we would be sleeping over. As I got ready for bed, memories I had of sleeping over with my cousins flooded my thoughts. We never worried about getting in trouble or staying up too late. We never had a second thought about tomorrow. We were just hanging out and enjoying the moment we had with each other by just being there for each other. It might sound boring to other people, but it meant the world to me. My two cousins are like sisters to me. They are both really close to me and have changed my life without even knowing it.

Whenever I think of my cousins, I think of all the fun times we’ve had together (like how we would play laser tag in the dark). We had to wear heavy gear but none of that stopped us from having a blast! I remember how I would jump at every little noise or movement in the dark but after I got past that, I was having the time of my life. I remember I would keep running into my cousins and then scampering away when they would try to shoot me. We were all competitive but I can’t deny that I was having fun. After our laser tag mission was over, I wanted to do it again and again with my cousins. Time seemed to fly by and there was nothing I could do to stop it. That’s why slowing down and just enjoying life holds so much importance behind it.

Sometimes it’s hard to enjoy life. But I guarantee you this: If you just slow down and have fun, you won’t have any regrets. My cousins taught me that I shouldn’t worry about when we had to stop or when we had to leave. Just enjoy every moment like it’s your last.

Post graduation party at the park...

 Congrats Hope!!!