Graduation Reflections, Part One

Ok, it's kind of weird to entitle a post "part one", when one doesn't have a real vision of what parts two or three will look like.  BUT - given the subject of this post, I just have a gut feeling that over the next month I will have many graduation reflection feelings (pride, tears, joy, tears, happiness, tears. . . you get the idea).  So - the first of probably several thoughts I will have on my daughter's upcoming high school graduation:

About January/February of my daughter's 8th grade year, my husband and I had a moment.  He had spoken with two good friends whose children had attended nearby parochial high schools, and he suggested we consider touring some instead of just assuming that our nearby public school would be the right choice for her.  Oddly enough, since I had only ever attended parochial schools my entire schooling career, I felt anxious about this plan.  The schools we were talking about were 30 minutes away, cost a lot of money, were full of people we didn't know, and were just plain unknown.  But - I did agree that we should check out our options before truly deciding what was best for our daughter. Our girl, who had been thinking she would be attending the public high school with most of her friends, was a little emotional, but mature about it all.

And so we visited the first school on our list - Marian.  Very soon into our visit, I knew this would be the place for her (and her brothers and sister).  My daughter felt it too -- she said it was just like our Lutheran grade school - only the high school version.  We were impressed with the students we encountered, the staff we talked to, and the curriculum we were shown.  But most of all, I remembered being drawn into the integral goal of the school -- to help form Godly, moral Christian people, and to get them into heaven above all.

Though our daughter felt all of what we felt, it was still a bit of an emotional mental switch for her.  We told her (and she understood), that we would listen to our children's opinions about where they would like to attend high school, but that as their parents, we would ultimately be making that important decision. And very soon, we knew that Marian was indeed our choice for our children.

We told our daughter that we weren't "afraid" of public education -- that choosing this parochial high school was not an alternative to public education or somehow a safe zone, shelter or oasis.  But -- that Marian would work in tandem with us as parents to do the following:

• To continue to teach our children to know and love God
• To give them a solid moral formation and foundation
• To show them how to love God with their entire being, which would therefore spill over into every aspect of their lives, including how they would conduct themselves in all circumstances

My friends, Marian felt like home.  Marian's mission felt like that of our Lutheran grade school, and all the things we valued in it were valued there as well.  The teachers at Marian want to touch young people's lives in just the same way I want to touch my students' lives in preschool and grade school.  The teachers in both places want the core of everything they do to be Jesus.  To show children Jesus, and bring them closer to him.

As our daughter's time at Marian is coming to a close, I am so incredibly thankful God led us there.  My daughter (and my son, behind her) has received a top-notch college-prep education, but more importantly, has continued to have her faith fed and nurtured on a daily, hourly basis.  And those lessons will last an eternity.