Graduation Ceremony

Well last night was the graduation ceremony and I was feeling utterly miserable because mum was just awful the day before and Julz had some work function on and Kristin didn't make it. I was just feeling so sad because mum's words really hurt me. Everyone else was so excited and all the locals had their supportive families. The internationals have loving families at home, so none seemed discouraged. I kind of wish I hadn't attended. I only went because Kristin's parents said they would come. Bless their precious souls.

Anyway, I forced myself to attend and then there wasn't a gown or hat for me because somehow Gail had missed putting mine in. That didn't actually bother me. Anyway, then we got all dressed up and took silly photos. I told a few people that I felt like i'd been punched in my gut and shared my grief. Then during the praise and worship all these tears kept pouring out of my eyes. It didn't help that I was in the very front row!!! I think the guest speaker (Mark Conner) noticed, but no one else seemed to pay any attention. It was so hard pushing them back in my eyes and holding myself together. Then we did the "walk up on the stage individually" bit and had our photos taken with the guest speaker. I couldn't help feeling down.

Afterwards, Kristin's faithful parents accompanied me to the Greaves room - we were the first to arrive. I introduced them to everyone as my adopted parents ... well not really that many people. I did, however, introduce them to Ps Barbara, who is my favorite teacher and I told her what had happened the previous day. She told me she had to withdraw from her mother completely because she would have destroyed her with her words. She suggested I might need to as well, and get on with my life and focus on what God has for me, not on trying to fix my family's problems. True, just so hard letting go ...

Anyway, here's a few piccies from last night...