So proud of her

My niece graduated from 8th grade yesterday. I knew that she was enjoying much about this major event in her life: a class trip to Great America, a dance at her new high school, a party at the school she was leaving ... She's been with many of her classmates since Kindergarten (one since preschool) and developed a dedicated posse of good friends (for some reason they all wore superhero capes to their last day -- ever! -- of school). After the graduation ceremony, she and her closest friends were literally the last kids to leave because they were taking pictures of one another in their cap/gown in front of their lockers, inside their "favorite" girls' bathroom, in the stairwell, with their favorite teachers, etc.

What I didn't realize was how terribly IMPORTANT she felt this day was. She showed me her memory book (an 8th grade class project) and saw that she referred to it as "the end of my childhood" and "the beginning of a new chapter." Her writings were very poignant. She wishes she could just stay in 8th grade forever. I wish she could, too.

Each 8th grader was asked to provide a quote that accurately reflected them. I was surprised and quite tickled by her choice. She mentioned that she began to listen to Bob Dylan, but I didn't realize how into him she's become. Her quote was from "Positively Fourth Street":

"I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes/And just for that one moment I could be you/Yes, I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes/You'd know what a drag it is to see you."

She is smart and witty and curious and perceptive and sensitive and I couldn't be more proud of her.