All Those Places You'll Go

Last night, my little brother graduated from high school.  How weird!  This is the best picture that I have of him getting his diploma.  The graduation ceremony is at the Cathedral of St. Paul, so it's not the best place for picture taking due to it's dark and Gothic interior.  Boo.

I went to an all-girls high school.  My brother goes to the all-boys military academy that is the "brother" school to my high school.  They have a couple of awesome graduation traditions that I love.  The ceremony is pretty standard.  Except the part where they tell you that we are in a place of worship and not to make too many loud and inappropriate noises during the handing out of diplomas.  Okay, no fun Sally!

Alright, so after the ceremony is over, they ask all the friends and family to gather outside for the class to march out.  Everyone gathers on the large Cathedral steps to wait for the class. 

The graduates march out, there are cheers and then the hats are thrown!

I love the sight of it.  At my high school graduation ceremony, we wore long white dresses and no caps, so I never got to throw one there.  Then I don't remember doing it in college and for law school, we had to rent those ugly ass octagonal hats, so there was no throwing there either.  This is as close as I get, I guess.

Once the hat throwing is over, the fight song is sung and the boys are allowed to smoke their "first" cigar on the Cathedral steps.  I'm sure that's what Jesus would do.

It was a fun night.  This fall, he will begin college at UW-Madison and I will forever make fun of him for being an honorary sconnie.  Here's a pic of me and the grad.  Please pardon the double chin.  Blech!