Graduation - Before

"Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerves for oars." 

-Richard Halliburton

I'm going to break this post up because this mama tends to take an obscene number of photos then gets sentimentally attached to every one of them and has a hard time not including 2500 pictures with every post.

Yes, my firstborn graduated from high school just under two weeks ago. As I ironed her gown, I was pretty sure it was the very gown I wore as a Layton High graduate just last year, or wait, has it really been 21 years? How did this happen? 

Jessica wanted some photos with her friends. I generally hate graduation day photos. They are usually sun saturated with every face washed out and every set of eyes two black shadows. I have trained Jessica well, and she is much more lighting conscientious than the average teenage girl. She convinced her friends to meet before the ceremony so that the lighting would be better and so that they wouldn't have to locate each other among the masses after the ceremony. Once again, the heavens seemed to be smiling upon Jessica, as there was cloud cover graduation morning allowing for the perfect lighting for photographing this cute bunch of graduates.

I always say that my two favorite age groups to photograph are newborns and high school seniors. It should be fairly evident why as you peruse these cute cute pictures.

I began shooting, and slowly more and more friends started showing up, each one being greeted enthusiastically by their peers.

Some of these kids have been friends since elementary school, many since junior high, and this group of twenty or so kids have been inseparable since sophomore year, exchanging texts and dance dates over the last three years. They have gloried in the triumphs and sorrowed in the tragedies of high school life together.

I have watched them transform from awkward sophomores to beautiful young adults.

I would be lying if I said that they've lost their goofiness over the years. Perhaps they have simply fine-tuned their humor to a certain level of wittiness that will serve them well as they enter the adult world. They will need that humor.

These are good kids. It is apparent by the cords and ribbons and medals and pins hanging around their necks. These are kids that would get up early on late-start days to go to the temple before school, kids I never worried about Jessica hanging out with on a weekend. Many of these boys already have mission calls. I strongly believe that each generation is more noble than the one that preceded it, and this group of kids is evidence of such a notion.

Jessica had to get a picture with Sabrina, as they are twinners when it comes to accomplishments. Same cords and medals and pins.

Orchestra buddies and best friends since junior high. They will miss each other as they move on to different colleges.

Neil was dubbed the care-taker of the purses during the photo shoot. He has always been the quiet supporter, standing in the background, helping in simple ways, but always present. This photo is all the better as he seems to have antennae sticking out of his head. Yes, I'm that kind of photographer.

We had to sneak one picture together with our beautiful graduate. These are the mommy and daddy payoff moments. Eighteen years of work come to fruition on days like this.

This is what all the blood, sweat, and tears was for. The hours and hours of studying for AP exams, the getting up at the crack of dawn to finish an essay, the drama over getting asked to Prom or not, the teenage highs and lows, and the hoop-jumping for certain unreasonable teachers. It was all endured and endured well for this culminating moment where this little band of friends earned the privilege to do the Toyota Jump or, to coin a more appropriate term for this generation, to have this High School Musical Moment. Because they were all in this together, and from this point on one person after another will begin to step away from the group as they pursue their own paths.

It was one of those wonderful mornings, not just because of the lighting but because of the light in this beautiful young woman's eyes. This beautiful young woman that we were given the privilege to have some tiny hand in her upbringing. She was God's daughter before she was ours, and He helped us raise her, and because He is a perfect parent, she turned out better than we ever could have hoped for.