Grad Party

As I was walking home from the park tonight, I ran into a grade eight graduation party. At least I'm pretty sure that's what it was. Young teenagers, dressed up, and streaming between a garage and the green space behind it with a few parents hanging around as well. It looked like what was jokingly referred to as a PCP party when I was in elementary school. (Parents, chips, and pop as opposed to the LSD parties - Love, Sex, and Drugs. Those jokes made more sense when those drugs were still popular.)

To my eyes, it felt like a party, organized by some parents, because the school itself couldn't have any sort of real graduation celebration because of The Circumstances. It was almost certainly was violating the current rules, but I wasn't about to report it except maybe to rant about it on Twitter. Then my indignation turned in a different direction. While there were a lot of people, it didn't feel like there were enough people to make up the whole class. Why were certain people excluded from the party? Did they choose not to come or were they not invited? If they chose not to come was it because they couldn't afford the clothes? Eventually though, my rant turned to one question, why bother celebrating something as unimportant as grade eight graduation? Does anyone even remember that celebration?

Oh wait, I do. Or at least certain aspects of it. I remember it was in the gym of the school and, after the speeches and presentations were done, there was a bit of a dance. I remember Kim asked me to dance with her and it was a slow dance and I was terrified. I excused myself and got a drink of water and came back in and she was waiting and there was nothing to do but actually dance with her. I remember one of the other guys in my class giving me a thumbs up while I was dancing with her which I found completely confusing.

Such a delightful memory. Thanks party goers for reminding me of that and may you all have equally confusing and terrifying evenings.