As I did with Ella, here is a post 9 months in the works! I'll start writing it in August of 2024 and will publish it in May of 2025 after feeling allll the feelings of Senior Year for our last kid.
The school year kicks off the morning of the First Day with Senior Sunrise. The Seniors put on their custom painted jeans and meet on the football field to watch the sun rise over their last year together.
Then they are graciously hosted at the home of a classmate and served a delicious breakfast. I do love the tone this sets for the year. Our Seniors are honored and loved well all year!
These official Senior photos are never something we order because I find them kind of cheesy, but I'll post the proofs here because Delia does look so pretty. ;) Our school does this strange thing making every girl and boy match with a fake suit and black drape thing. The upper middle picture ended up being used for all the social media and graduation posts in May.
In the fall, Delia started her journey to The Final Bow. She LOVED her cast of Shrek and the experience performing as a veteran. She worked hard to develop a relationship with and mentor all the underclassmen. Her director, Mrs. M, started posting these lovely tributes to Delia for her final year in Drama.
The Senior schedule offers a lot of space for electives! Delia enjoyed taking Home Economics her first semester and Choir her second semester. (In full disclosure, the Choir choice was actually just to be with friends and gain a study hall a few days a week! :) Above is one of Delia's favorite sewing projects-- a darling apron she made for Ella for Christmas. And below is Delia's final choir concert ever, a fun Disney-themed one.
One of the best Senior classes our kids take is "Christian Marriage and Family". The topic is engaging and the teacher is a favorite. One of the big assignments is to interview an older role model about their marriage and record wisdom and lessons learned. Delia interviewed Grandma and her sweet teacher sent me this pic of her proudly sharing her project with the class.
When the college acceptances and boxes of swag started arriving, next year started feeling extra real and exciting! I'll use this space to brag about how well Delia did with scholarships-- she got 5 scholarships totaling almost $30,000!
"Play Season" continued into the winter as Delia was honored to be asked once again to mentor the Middle School play, Annie. This year she was even given extra responsibilities-- running practices when the director couldn't be there and choreographing two of the songs herself. She formed a sweet bond with the middle schoolers and felt proud of how she handled the leadership role-- to the point of considering if directing and choreographing kids in plays might be something she wants to do in the future, along with counseling...? One of her favorite new friends was 7th grader Abigail, who played Miss Hannigan. Abigail's mom will actually be my first grade partner next year, so the girls are delighted to find their paths keep crossing!
Senior year is a time to support your friends! Delia's been there for Senior sports nights, Homecoming Court, concerts and more this year.
Not necessarily Senior-specific, but one fun week this year, Delia got to step away from regular classes to do some special projects. One day she job shadowed me in the preschool all day (above). The kids LOVED her! We're still laughing about one of my favorite little guys sitting down next to her and saying, "Hey, I'm Truman. I can open the fridge all by myself." Another day, Delia and some friends got their inflatable costumes on and helped run our school's jog-a-thon. Delia was a literal chicken jockey on this day. ;)
Ahh, we've reached the Final Show pictures. This was SUCH a special show for Delia to go out on. It was the perfect part and she had a ton of fun with it. Mrs. M. has made no secret of the fact that the class of 2025 is extra dear to her, so she honored them well with features in the program, generous social media posts, and teary speeches on Senior Night.
Delia kissed the stage goodbye and then started looking into what it would take to add a Theater Minor to her Psychology Major and Biblical Studies Minor in college. She just doesn't think she's done performing.
Speeches and hugs to close out an amazing 13 show, 6 year run in our school's Theater program. What joy, purpose, community, and opportunity to grow gifts and passions Delia has found here!
Our school hosts a special day for our Seniors that the entire student body participates in. The Seniors don their band new caps and gowns for the first time and then take a walk through the breezeways and hallways many of them have walked since kindergarten. Every student and teacher line up outside their classrooms to high five and hug the passing Seniors. Delia said she made a little traffic jam in the middle school and freshman hallways as she was hugged by all her younger drama friends.
The parents are at the end of line for our own high-fives and hugs. Then we circle up around the class to pray over them.
After the walk, we proceed to the Senior Chapel to be led in a time of worship by our Seniors. Delia shared testimony about what it means to face her future and "not be anxious about anything." Here is what she said: "Faith and trust in God play a big role in overcoming anxiety. God is always with us and constantly helps us fight our battles. We can find comfort in Him because we have no reason to fear anything. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, our salvation is assured, and we are already citizens of God’s perfect kingdom. He calls us by name and welcomes us with open arms. We no longer need to fear death because of the wonderful life that is promised to us. For all the worldly things in our lives that make us anxious, we always have God’s word to dive into and be inspired by His comforting messages. We can also pray to God and lift our struggles or anxieties to Him. He will hear our cries and help us, whether it be through someone we can talk to or a behavior or habit the Holy Spirit helps us change. God hears us and is always beside us. His words and promises are a solid rock we can stand on amidst the shaky and insecure views of the secular world that affect our anxious tendencies."
The first Senior tears sprang from my eyes on this day as beautiful prayers of blessing were spoken over our kids by the administrators and teachers who love them.
Delia learned her classmates voted her "Best Laugh" for the yearbook's Senior Superlatives and she loves it! So do we! We have good laughers, like Anna and Grandma, in our lives; Delia carries on their laughing legacy! :)
This wholesome class came up with a pretty funny Senior Prank. The superintendent's son Jared is in the class. At 5am, he let all his Senior classmates, wearing jammies and carrying blankets, sneak into his house like silent ninjas. When his dad, Mr. S., woke up and wandered into the living room, he found what appeared to be a big sleepover! They got him! Mrs. S. was in on it, thank goodness, and had donuts for them all.
Field Day is our school's epic battle of class vs. class. It's always rigged so the Seniors win and this year was no exception. Delia is not competitive or sporty, so she's mostly there for the BBQ lunch, time with friends, and custom colored shirts. :)
I love our school's policy of recognizing that our Seniors have their future plans, college acceptances, and scholarships secure at this point, so there is no reason for them to take final exams. Instead they put them on a fancy bus at 3am for a grand Senior Trip to SoCal. Delia's class went to Disneyland!!
She had the BEST time doing Disney with friends and sent me these fun updates all day long while I was still in school. Spiderman rides and Dole Whips and character sightings and roller coaster selfies! I love these core memories for her and her friends.
The trip is a couple days and after their day in Disney, they next head to Huntington Beach. The kids are admittedly exhausted after the all night bus ride and 12+ hours in the park the day prior. Super fun on beach day was Gideon, who lives nearby, coming over to hang with Delia and her friends and play a few rounds of sandy spike ball. The merging of important high school and college people!
As the school year opens with Senior Sunrise, it closes with Senior Sunset. The class gathers at the country home of a classmate the night before graduation to watch the sun set on their years together at this school. A beautiful tradition and metaphor.
Our Seniors spend their last hours together immediately after graduation (which will be its own separate post :) at an epic all night Sober Grad party. The moms that run this must have found some insanely generous donors this year because Delia had a BIG Sober Grad! They hopped on a fancy double decker bus to Sacramento to spend the night at the Top Golf they rented out! Endless food and drinks, fun golfing with friends, and prizes awarded every few minutes had Delia coming home not tired from yet another all-nighter, but super pumped about the $200 cash, Target gift card, Jamba Juice gift card, and huge laundry hamper full of dorm supplies that she won! We've always said that our kids don't need a bribe to stay sober on grad night, but this night is a crazy fun, super grand finale way to celebrate their years at this school!
It's been a great year! It's been a great thirteen years!! I'm so thankful for the education and experiences both my girls received at our beloved school. And I'm thankful to still have a part of it for other students as a teacher. I don't know yet what it will feel like to drive to school without a passenger in my car or to watch a play without one of our own kids in it, but I know Delia feels ready for this chapter to close and an exciting new one to start.
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