Graduation and wedding

Last Friday saw 95% of our 18 year old grade 12 students graduate from high school and walk the stage in the auditorium at Calgary University. It was a significant ritual in their young lives and one they have worked hard to achieve. They were genuinely proud and nervous as they stepped onto the stage beside me and walked off to collect their graduation certificate from Mr MacFarland, the Principal. I was on stage announcing names, a task generally performed by teachers who are retiring that year. It was a real honour to be asked as I am just going home, but I didn't realise how big a deal the whole shebang was until it began. I've been trying to explain to folks over here that we don't so much graduate from High School as simply stop going, any celebrations being a more personal affair as one picks up the insignificant looking envelope containing results of A-levels or GCSEs. Seeing as our graduands had yet to finish their exams and therefore didn't know for sure that they would actually graduate I was expecting this to be all pomp and circumstance, a sop to a North American tradition, so it was a treat to be proved wrong and a privilege to be a part of an afternoon these young people will remember for the rest of their lives. Well done all of you, may your lives continue to be filled with the hope and promise we all see in you.

As soon as I left grad we were off to witness the start of another great adventure: the marriage of Jen Van de Laak to her farming beau Jim in the small prairie town of Leader, Saskatchewan. It was a truly beautiful day and the weather could not have been better. We spent much of the day surrounded by country music, cowboy hats, pick-up trucks, wide-open spaces and the friendly welcoming atmosphere of a small town where everybody knows everybody else's business and cares about them. All 235 guests ate well and enjoyed themselves and the happy couple were genuinely happy all day, surrounded by people who loved them. It made Vic and I remember our wedding day fondly, as weddings always do. The only other time in your life all your friends and relatives will get together to celebrate you is likely to be your funeral and I am not hoping to have that party for a good while yet! Vic and I finished our day as the wedding photographers with 849 photos to edit and touch up. I can't even imagine how much it would have cost to do a wedding back in the days of film.
Jim and Jen tied the knot at 3.37 pm. God bless every minute you guys spend together, and thanks for having us there.

I am putting the finishing touches to this on Friday morning, the 6th June. I have 3 more teaching days left between now and September and I am both excited about the upcoming adventure as well as sad to be leaving what has been an excellent year all round; great school, nice kids, friendly dept, the most welcoming church I have ever come across. awesome skiing and a whole heap of fabulous friends. That said, it's going to be great to get home and see all our friends there who we have missed so much.

I promise to write again soon,,

R