Congratulations Kristel!

My sister, Kristel graduated from Buchanan High School today in a short ceremony. The ceremony was held outside on the football field/track despite the threat of thunderstorms. Mom and I decided to be safe and brought our umbrellas. What kind of Filipinos would we be if we didn’t? :P After my December graduation at state, this almost seemed like a private affair. After all, there were just over one hundred students in Buchanan’s graduating class. Take that and compare it to State’s which had, I think, over one thousand. Yet, even that is small in comparison to spring where it is not even feasible for the entire graduating class to have a ceremony together. I would guestimate that somewhere around seven thousand graduate then.

Grandma and Uncle Kenny turned out to watch Kris. We spotted them from across the bleachers and Dad went to fetch them. Uncle Kenny didn’t want to climb over people to get to where we were sitting so they just waited over there. The commencement was very short. Only the Superintendent gave a speech. Actually, he only introduced the school board and the student speakers. The student speakers were the meat and potatoes of this program. There were a total of six speakers! Whatever happened to just the speeches made by the valedictorian and the salutatorian? As you would expect, they all pretty much said the same thing over and over again. However, I did find one to be slightly memorable. It was based on the phrase, “no fate but what we make.” The geekness in me was overjoyed by the fact that someone had used a line in Terminator 2 for their speech. After they were all done, they handed out their diploma holders (they get the real diplomas later.) I made it a point to not only applaud my sister, but her Galien friends as well. It was unfortunate that they were forced to move to Buchanan after Galien HS closed down but they have done well for themselves over there. So congrats to her friend Jeff (007), and to Dennis and Nathan.







Kris with Grandma, Mom, Uncle Kenny and Dad. She has on the honors cord as well as a blue stole which indicates her membership in the National Honor Society.