Feeling young/Feeling old

We had graduation on Friday night. All of the top 10 were students that I taught this year and some of them I taught last year, too. I was so proud of them all. Of course a few of them made it through at the last minute by the skin of their teeth (and by a touch of my grace).

While I was sitting in the gym, I was thinking of the "kids" in Batesville who graduated this year. It was a group that I babysat for when I was in high school (they were in the 2nd and 3rd grade), then I student taught their Alg II class when they were in 9th grade, and finally I tutored most of them through Chemistry and Geometry in the 10th grade before moving here. The fact that they've already graduated made me feel old. We have our 10 year reunion this year. 10 YEARS!!! It seems just like yesterday until I think of all that I've squeezed into and learned during those 10 years.

Anyway, after all the names had been called and the hats tossed, I hugged several necks of my students and headed for the hallway where I could de-robe and get some air. On my way out the door I had 3 separate ladies come up and hug my neck and tell me congratulations. Now if they had my the parents of my students I would have totally understood that they were congratulating me on surviving the school year, but they were older ladies I had never seen before. All of the sudden I felt a little younger. If I can still pass for a high school senior in some of these ladies' eyes, maybe I'm not SO old after all.