No Graduation Party. What we did instead.

As my son started his senior of high school, many of his school events revolved around celebrating the seniors’ ‘last year’ in school! These monthly events or ‘senior surprises’ had things like pancake breakfasts, ice cream days, and monogrammed blankets etc, – that were all leading up to the final moment of ‘graduation‘ in May.

I don’t know if it was because my first child was graduating high school, or because I got caught up in the excitement leading up to it, but I for one was very much looking forward to celebrating this big milestone.
Like many moms, I had been taking down ideas whenever I saw my friends do their kids’ graduation parties. If you know me, you know that I love planning themed parties, and of course, I had a Pinterest board taking shape with theme colors, prop ideas, photo backdrops, and cake designs- all ready to go!

As spring rolled around and it was time to begin planning and ordering the ‘class of 2023’ banners, my son said he didn’t want a graduation party!

“What do you mean you don’t want a graduation party?” I asked, thinking he just needed a little convincing and wasn’t really thinking straight.
But as luck would have it. He really didn’t want one. At all.
He told me his reasons. We went back and forth on this, and I kept trying to convince him by proposing all sorts of ideas for a graduation party -after all, I had an extensive Pinterest board overflowing with ideas!. But in the end, I had to give in because he was pretty adamant and I wasn’t winning this argument.

After talking with some of my friends, I realized that not every senior wants the traditional graduation party, and some opt for a more close-knit celebration of sorts, while some don’t do anything but a family dinner to mark this occasion. I came around because essentially he was the one graduating and not me. But I was still pretty upset my Pinterest Board didn’t materialize as I had wanted. 😂

In the end, we went with an alternative route to mark this special occasion. Here are some of the things we did, and I thought I would share them with you, in case your senior also says no to a big graduation party!

Had a Family Celebration

The graduation was a long event that ended up taking almost the whole day! But once the graduation ceremony ended, and everyone took endless pictures all around the school, and said goodbyes to friends – we were all exhausted and hungry! I had made reservations for dinner at a nice place that was actually a revolving restaurant on the top floor and had a steak night that evening! It was just our family for dinner and it was perfect! Just how my son had wanted it with free-flowing conversations, lots of laughter, and dissecting the graduation ceremony that had just taken place. After dinner, we went home, watched a slideshow (more on that later), and did graduation presents. No frills and yet special.

Watched A Slideshow (With Surprises)

Slideshows are fun to watch with the collective ‘aww’s’ after baby pictures and the reminiscing of events from years ago! It was a task going through all the old pictures for my son’s 18-year school journey with school events, field trips, sports day, book day, etc. I tried to include mostly school pictures to keep with the graduation theme. (Can you tell I was still trying to channel my inner Pinterest energy with themes?!)
But I knew I wanted to make the slideshow extra special with something more than just pictures.
I reached out to the teachers that had taught my son in the past and asked if they would send him a video message to include for his graduation slideshow. Would you believe I was able to reach out to all his teachers starting from his very first one at Montessori when he was only 3 years old all the way up to the start of high school!
Considering we have been ex-pats and my son has changed several schools, it was a task and a half! But thanks to the power of social media and my amazing stalking skills😂 , I was able to reach out to all of them.
Thankfully they all remembered him, and I had attached a class picture with my message to jog their memory in case they had forgotten. But interestingly enough, they all remembered something special about him that they included in their video message and sent back to me! One of his teachers from Year 4 actually wrote a poem for him! Truly very special!
In the end, when I compiled the slideshow it came together beautifully, with every year of school documented with pictures from that year, and a video message from the teacher of that year! It was so amazing to listen to all the video messages from his teachers and since we did this just as a family, we all shared what we remembered about the teachers too!

Took a Family Trip

We had been wanting to take a family vacation in the summer and this was the perfect reason to plan one out. Of course, when I asked my son which places he may want to visit, his response was, ‘Do we really need to do a family vacation?’.
But I wasn’t letting go of this one. We took a short trip to Barcelona and Mallorca and I think it turned out to be a pretty good family trip – well as good as it gets with teens! But a fun one before he leaves for college.
Most of the days were spent sightseeing, enjoying tapas, practicing some Spanish, and not taking many family pictures because who does that with teens. But it was memorable nonetheless.
To see a quick recap of our trip to Barcelona, check out my Instagram reel and some pictures below.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Nadia Hasan (@anintrovertedblogger)

Had Teachers Write Messages In A Favorite Book

‘Oh the places you’ll go’ is one of the most popular graduating books to gift your senior. As it turns out my son and I had read all of the Dr. Suess books when he was a child and this was one of his favorites.
Another book that he read later in his teenage years and liked was ‘The Last Lecture‘ by Randy Pausch. Both books are profound in their own ways and make great presents!
I took both those books and had all his high school teachers write messages in them and sign them. The teachers honestly outdid themselves with such thoughtful messages for him! It was such a huge hit with my son.

Celebrating with mom friends

I think as much as it is my son’s graduating moment, it feels like a little bit of my moment too! I have also gone through 18 years of schooling which has not been easy and would love to rejoice with other mom friends! It is these ‘mom friends’ that have seen me cry when things were going downhill, and with whom I shared the little wins that made me feel like I was rocking this parenting gig! They have been my village and I probably couldn’t have done it without them!

After all, this was done, I felt quite happy with how everything transpired. Turns out, we didn’t need the big graduation party I had in mind after all.
The only thing is a few weeks later, one of my friends called my son asking him if she and some other mom friends could host a grad party for him when we visit Virginia in the summer?
His response: That sounds like a great idea!!
Go figure!