The mid summer evening was warm with a slight breeze which gave a soft cooling filling to the atmosphere, the football field for which this joey’s ceremony was about to unfold smelt of freshly cut grass. But the crowd of men and women of all ages was not here to rebel in that good old past time of sportsmanship. They cam to this spot for a different reason all together, a reason that many had waited 18 years for, the departure of there young son or daughter or occasionally both, from there chains of education which held them prisoner for the past 12 years. To walk down a red velvet aisle reach there hand out and receive a diploma, for in that very insistent when paper touches hand there chains of the public education system were broken. Now what ever they wished to do with there lives to help or harm society was up them. There would be no one left to hold there hand and guide them down a path of some one else picking. No for at that moment a chapter of there life was finished; and sealed all there mistakes all there triumphs, would for ever be written down in the pages of life. Never to be revisited or altered in any way. And at the same moment when that chapter came to its climatic ending another epic and potentially tragic chapter of there life would begin. For at this point in time on earth it was the evening sunset and the morning sun rise. The young men and women numbering in 150 walked and took there seats as they had practiced for the past days, there faces held a look of both excitement and fear for what was about to happen had after four years, of work had at last come. Many choked the tears back as they saw there friends walk up and approach the man in the black cap and gown standing there at the podium, holding there future in his hands.
Many could not help but cry at least one tear; it was hard for them to imagine there freshmen year it seemed so long ago, when it was only just four years before. Many had walked into that high school campus at first but slowly there numbers shrunk, those who were not strong enough not brave enough had vanished what had become of them? Many of those who sat there in the middle of the football field did not care no one thinks of the losers. The sun slowly went behind the hills casting the night on the field. The emotion of the men and women in both the stands and on the football field was palatable. No one before had ever felt such power of emotions before. Some were rejoicing others were crying, cheering it was like this every year. Members of the past classes would come and praise there friends the new generation of students.
What would become of them?
Surely there paths were different from the next, some would remain close friends for ever, others would slowly grow apart despite how hard they worked to keep there friendship together. It was a fact of life, a sad fact but when that must be accepted.
The man at the podiums voice echoed across the field, it rung in the seniors ears, for ever to be hammered into there head.
The women of the graduating class wore white and the men wore red but they each shared a same fate tonight. Some of them held there hands as the man read the names out loud.
Each calling of a name was like a wave of cheers and parse. Many of them had done different things in there life at the high school some where in sports others were in arts others did nothing but study, and some just got lucky. But tonight was there night; no one could take it away from them. For some who had a slight difficulty grasping the gravity of the occasion, had to pitch them self’s to make sure it was not in fact a dream. And even then some still couldn’t believe it, and for others that had a habit of nostalgia, for which they just had to look back on there past to see what they had done, found it hard to believe that four years had past them by; in no time at all as if they were walking through time.
For one man in particular who had felt as if his life was passing him by tonight was the end of his old life, of the life for which he had made so many mistakes. He promised him self that tonight was the start of a new life; for many in the field tonight was the start of a new life.
All the names had been called and all the men and women on the field had at last ended there life at the school that had become like a second home to them.
They hugged they cried, they cheered. Some still couldn’t believe it, and stayed sitting in there chairs still trying to grasp what had just happened. Some took pictures others did nothing but cry. A couple a boy and a girl who now had become adults in the vast world couldn’t help but hold each other in there arms, refusing to let one another go, the world was so open to them now. Open and frightful.
This was there night, a night that no one could take away from them. Some would eventually go off into college others would just fade away.
Tonight the sun had risen on the world for them. And as they walked into the sunrise the next group of men and women would take there place as seniors, and next year it would be there turn. And so forth and so on, class after class. 09,10,11,12 a whole new generation like so many before them.