My little brother took The Walk today.

[aruan]

Second most important after the one down the aisle. This is the one across the stage.

Tonight, my brother became a high school graduate. *beams with pride* Characteristically, he forgot his medallion, but his teachers know him well by now, too, and that had been taken care of, so after singing along to Time of Your Life, I spent the ceremony telling stories with his girlfriend and making each other cry. He was so handsome! The red/white/black colors looked very distinguished. His handsome little face with the unruly tassel that kept swinging into his eyes! The black sneakers only he could get away with wearing when the dress code specifically banned them! His grinning, confident walk across the Sunrise Musical Theater stage, waving to both us and my parents in the balcony! *beams some more*

Getting there wasn't as easy, nor as certain for him as it'd been for me. Years of frustration over his reading level, composition skills, tutors and programs and yeah, he may well have charmed himself into a few of those barely passing grades, but he did it. He's always excelled in mathematics and has an incredible future ahead of him as an automotive technician/engineer, as he's demonstrated by spending his Senior year winning competitions all over the state of Florida. I bet few of us walked away with anything remotely as useful on our high school resumes.

I don't think I've ever seen him as happy as tonight. And while most of us take a high school diploma for granted, he worked hard and deserves all the recognition and praise due at such an occasion.

Comments

[giddyupnow.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's good to hear how much you care and understand what he's been through, warm fuzziness. Tell him congrats from a random friend of yours on the other side of the country! :-) My bro is walking tomorrow at UCLA and the idea is still kinda surreal to me if I think on it too much...

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

For all our differences and fighting before, my leaving for college was the best thing to ever happen for us and we've actually been a lot closer for those once a month phone talks than years of living under the same roof.

Thank you for the kudos, I'll definitely pass them on.