Graduation is for your parents

Graduation kind of sucks. It’s kind of boring. But you have to do it.
Really, you have to.

So even though I’m a member of NHS, technically I was never inducted. Why? I just didn’t show up for the ceremony. I had better things to do that night.
I won three “senior awards” in high school. The ceremony was 3 hours of my life in an unairconditioned auditorium that I will never ever get back.
Graduation? A long and tiring process where all 555 members of my senior class were announced and given a diploma. I got to sit on the stage because I was in the select singing group that sang the national anthem. Which meant I was announced nice and early, but we sat through everything.
But it wasn’t about me. Because, really, graduation is for your parents.

Kids, you got prom. You got to dress up and hang out with your friends and dance the night away (watching out buttoned up valedictorian jump-dancing with his girlfriend is still, to date, one of the best things I’ve ever seen).  You get days to sign your yearbooks and say goodbye.
But graduation? You take pictures in your (very unattractive) robes, with all 10000 of your tassels and medals. You’re heading off to the best college in the world in the fall. This is a time for your parents to see you grow. To commemorate the amazing job they did raising you.
So even though you look like a huge dork, smile. Take a picture with grandma. Shake the principal’s hand on stage. Let your parents scream and clap when your name is announced.
Let your parents have their night to be proud of you and your accomplishments.
Remember, this is all for them. Let them have their moment in the sun.
And be glad that you have a lot of much more attractive pictures from prom.
For reference:

This was for me

This was for my parents