I love computers. I love digital cameras. I love editing programs that I am just learning to use. I love blogging. I love Eric.
Thank you to all who have influenced him over the years. Thanks to those at school--family and friends and teachers and staff--who helped him adjust to school life and shepherded him along and tried to keep him from wandering too far and included him in their activities (dang, why am I crying as I type this? ugh. I can't see). Thanks to family and friends who have been such good examples to Eric...and good examples to all of us.
And thanks to Eric for being his wonderful self and for bringing us joy as we watched him grow and progress [and for bringing his F in English up to a C+ and his F in US Government up to a D+ (dang, just 2 points away from a C-) so he could graduate last night].
At home before graduation. Eric is wearing his ITS sash (International Thespian Society) and a money and candy lei that Nancy Hall made for him. Thanks Nancy!
He earned a perfect attendance award this year (so did Ryan, but for some reason only the Seniors get a certificate). He also earned a scholarship from ITS, which wasn't really a surprise. The surprise was that he won a musical theatre scholarship from the music department as well. That was nice. Wish I could see him perform as Pres. Roosevelt in "Annie" again. (of course his performance in "Seussical" was also stellar)
Weather seemed a bit iffy...but in the end it was really quite nice. A bit too windy here and there, but not too hot and it didn't rain.
Alicia, one of 3 tied for 1st for highest GPA (and therefore one of our 3 co-valedictorian speakers), asked Eric to walk with her...thank you Alicia. That was so sweet of you and it really made graduation extra nice. Interesting fact--Alicia was one of the 12 honor grads and of those 12, 11 were females. Tyler Hubbard kept the boys from being shut out. Way to go Tyler! (though I'm sure he doesn't read my blog, but I thought it was a fun fact...)
The score board's addition to the graduation ceremony of the Class of 2010.
There was a 2 helicopter fly-by salute (or whatever you want to call it) that the Navy Search and Rescue did for us. I thought it was really neat. Ryan, however, was disappointed that they didn't drop any bombs or anything on us.
Alicia was the first co-valedictorian to speak since they spoke alphabetically. She did a fabulous job. I'm hoping she'll give me a copy of her speech to put in Eric's scrapbook. I think she was the best of the 3 students who spoke and I also think she did a better job than the keynote speaker. Way to go Alicia!!! You are amazing. (dang, I'm crying again)
Wendy Tam (who was the female half to Eric's yearbook's Biggest Bookworm award) spoke next.
Ok, I took a photo of the yearbook page and cropped it. fyi-that's a French textbook she is reading...really, with 2 book worms like Eric and Wendy, they didn't have anything better in their backpacks to use as a prop for the photo other than a French textbook??? Too funny.
Virginia White was the last co-valedictorian speaker.
The senior choir students (about 12 students) got to perform a class song...they slightly adapted (cleaned up) the words to "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. They sounded great. Friends Kennedy and Hannah were on stage too...but since they weren't right next to Eric, they missed this photo op. Another interesting item for me--more girls than boys in this little choir and most of those girls were NHS members and the boys weren't...don't know if that means anything, but thought it was interesting...
Thanks to Mom and Dad Perazzo arriving so early, we had front row seats for the audience...right behind the grads (well, most of us...Hannah was in the back with a friend and Glen was in with the grads since he is a teacher)! Thanks Mom and Dad! And thanks for taking Ryan, Hannah, and Alex home afterward so Glen and I could go straight to Grad Night bus duty!
This photo is being posted for my mother who couldn't be here, but who loves sunsets. It's not the best Fallon can do, but Mom's seen many good sunsets in Fallon.
Here Eric is receiving his diploma from family friend and optometrist Greg Koenig, school board trustee. When we were looking at the photos this morning I apologized to Eric that this photo was blurry because it was all just happening too fast and the light was fading, so I couldn't get a better photo. He said it was just showing his
vampire speed.
After the graduation ceremony, it was time to head to the Navy Base for the Grad Night party. Glen and I had bus duty at the old Walmart parking lot to get the kids onto the school buses and out to the base. Then later we did another shuttle bus duty on base at the bowling alley. The shuttles transferred the kids from the Officers' Club to the bowling alley/rock climbing wall to the go carts. They really had a lot of fun things for the kids to do.
In the money booth, Eric won some kind of laundry center and shelf that I'm sure I will enjoy using since he is not going away to college, but will be living at home while attending WNC. Hmm. Maybe I'll make him pretend he is away and he can still use it. Alicia won a smart pen (with 1 gigabyte memory). Can't wait to see how that works. Sounds fascinating. Might have to have one as it would really come in handy at Ed Week.
Here Eric is on the shuttle bus. Now, other grads wore their Grad Night shirts on their bodies. Eric chose to wear his on his head like a turban. I told you yesterday he would have also qualified to win the Most Unique for the yearbook. There's no one like Eric. It's not the best picture of Eric, but it's about the only time we saw Eric while we were on the base.
Here Glen is on shuttle duty at 2:30 am. I had been worried about freezing to death, but it wasn't too cold and I didn't get too tired. Our shift was almost over and we were headed back to the Officer's Club for the door prize drawings. Congrats Kennedy on winning the TV with surround sound. You wanted that more than the laptops, didn't you?
And lastly, we have Eric at the Officer's Club after everything was done and we heading home.
Congratulations Eric!
I will end with one quote by Albert Schweitzer from last night's ceremony:
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.
May the Class of 2010 be happy and successful.
A little sports
