Graduation Memories

Graduation Memories

by Dottie

It may have been just over 20 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in June and I was 17 years old waiting for my graduation party to start. Ironically, I didn’t even want a graduation party.  I had even actually given my mom a bit of hard time for throwing me one.  I was so focused on leaving for my senior trip to Hawaii, for summer to start and to go to college, that I was just glad graduation was over and I was ready to move on! 

My friends and family started arriving with gifts and hugs.  We ate cake and people made toasts and I found myself thrilled that my mom had gone to all this trouble to host a party for me.  Looking around at all the decorations my mom had put so much work into and had concealed from me for weeks while doing so made me realize just how much she loved me and how hard it would be for her when I moved 8 hours away.  Here I had just been so excited to jump ship and start a new fun life at a college by the beach and in about 5 minutes I realized that my life was about to change forever and that so would the lives of my family members.

My mom decorated the party with posters in my school colors with photos of me throughout my life.  She had set the table in my high school colors and even had appetizers that matched the green and gold theme!   She even put green food coloring in the champagne and let me sneak a sip.  It was a very special day that I will never forget. But one of my favorite memories of that day was the anticipation of opening the largest gift there.  It was large and heavy and wrapped in my red and black college colors!    I opened it last and was filled with anticipation waiting to do so.  I peeled back the paper to discover a suitcase. A suitcase I thought…hmmm…how ordinary.  Somehow I’d been hoping for something a bit more grand.  Then I thought…oooh…maybe it’s packed with new clothes!  So I tore it open only to find there wasn’t a new wardrobe waiting for me.

There were several individually wrapped items in the suitcase.  As I started peeling the wrapping paper back, I found that it was mostly necessities.   Things I’d always had growing up in my parent’s house that I’d taken for granted.  When I pulled out the toilet paper, everyone laughed.  Then came the Costco sized packs of deodorant, laundry soap, shampoo, conditioner and more.  She even gave me like 30 packs of my favorite gum despite her distaste for my gum chewing habit!  There was a mesh laundry bag, stain remover, directions on how to do my laundry ….so many things that I never even considered needing for college (admittedly I was a bit spoiled at home).  At the bottom of the box,  in a special envelope there was a calling card for emergencies (remember those!), an address book filled out with everyone’s contact information (even my friends) and postage stamps and stationery already pre-addressed to people like my mom, dad and grandparents.  She even put birthday cards in there for me to send to my family on their birthdays!  My mom thought of everything! 

Funny thing is, she still does!  To this day, this has to be THE BEST gift I’ve ever received.  It was creative, thoughtful and completely memorable and it took her a lot of time and energy to put it together.  I love the start of new family traditions and this is one I will do for my kids when they leave the nest someday.