ASB High School Graduation Day

I will probably stop constantly comparing my high school experience to those of our students here at ASB at some point, but today was a pretty stark reminder of how really different things are here (or are at many small schools throughout the world).

First off, only 43 graduates -- it took only 12 minutes (or more importantly 3.25 times through Pomp and Circumstance) to process in. Fellow '99 West High grads comment away, but did we graduation with 500? This has a profound impact on their experience because the '11 ASB grads all seem to know all of the inside jokes (maybe they don't, but from an outsiders perspective ...). They are far better connected to each other -- I remember sitting at my high school graduation next to people I literally did not know (we sat in the tradition alphabetical order).

The student speaker this afternoon was as good as it gets in my opinion, mostly because he engaged the audience and the graduates. As I looked up from my seat just to the right of my podium I watched the faces of the other graduates and they were all genuinely paying attention to him. He inserted fun anecdotes about their "Week Without Walls" trips with stories of rafting down the Ganges. Small schools have this ability to get students feel more connected.

Fitting all the graduates and their families and friends into our tiny, one-basketball-court-sized gym was certainly different than the Kohl Center in Madison -- a most impersonal space -- and after the ceremony was over, people stayed for an "appyfiz" toast and milled about happily chatting away like a cocktail party. I remember milling about in the courtyard outside the Kohl Center and being frustrated that I couldn't find all the friends I wanted to say goodbye to because the space was so big (and another high school was in the waiting room ready to do their graduation).

Which high school experience is more meaningful? No comment -- it's really an apples and oranges sort of thing. But I will say this: I'm sure that 12 years from now (the time it's been since I graduated) that more of the ASB Class of 2011 will still be in contact with each other than I am.

Congratulations Graduates, good luck in your next endeavor, wherever that takes you.