The "Cool Mom" (do the kids still say "cool"?)

This time last year I was the proud and sobbing mother of a High School Graduate.  Happy to report she has successfully completed her first year of college and is doing well. Tonight I will be chaperoning the band for this year's graduation ceremony. I have been to all of the graduation ceremonies at our high school since my oldest was a freshman.

I have cried at every one of them.

Yes, I'm that mom. I'm the mom that most of the kids know. I don't want to say I'm the "cool mom" because I think all the kids would roll their eyes at that phrase, but I am the mom that most of the kids know. I'm the mom who volunteers to work the concession stand for Friday night football games rather than sit in the stands and watch my band kid perform. I'm the mom who chaperones band trips because I love these kids. I've watched them grow from awkward middle schoolers to awkward high school underclassmen to amazing, bright, talented young men and women.

And tonight I will watch another group of them as they receive their diplomas and move on. And I will cry. I can't help it! It's my own fault for getting involved in the first place. If I was the mom who just showed up when I absolutely HAD to, or just phoned it in, these things would be so much easier. But that's not who I am. I choose to be involved. I LIKE helping out, I want to know who my kids' friends are, and I love getting to know the other parents who are as devoted to the cause as I am. It's a brotherhood/sisterhood sort of thing. You get to know the parents who really want to help and you get to mock the rest who never show up.

So here's to another graduation, the passing of time, the growing up of our children. Best of luck to them and to the parents who made them who they are. And here's to the teachers who helped guide them. I'll have Kleenex ready.