Graduation Walk at Shaw Road Elementary School

One of the traditions that I love in our district is the Grad Walk where seniors get to walk through the hallways of their elementary school while wearing their cap and gown the day before they graduate.  After seeing this in person for the first time last year while I was subbing at Shaw Road, I have been looking forward to watching Lia participate in this tradition for an entire year.  However, I found out about a month ago that her mandatory graduation practice at the fairgrounds began at the exact same time as her Grad Walk at 1 o'clock.  This is due to the fact that the elementary schools schedule their Grad Walks around the graduation practices of the high school that they feed into.  Since Lia waivered into Rogers High School, her graduation practice time was not taken into consideration.  After getting over the initial disappointment of this information, I decided to see if I could figure out a way to make it work and called the Roger's office.  After talking to a really nice lady on the phone and explaining Lia's situation, she quickly gave Lia permission to be about 25 to 30 minutes late to her graduation practice.  Although this was good news, trying to make it to both events made Lia and I a little nervous, especially since I had been told that Grad Walks can start late due to many seniors arriving late to the elementary school.

After saying several prayers this week that it would all work out, the day finally arrived yesterday.  Lia and I showed up an hour early to the elementary school so that we could go visit several teachers in the school.  We had a great time walking around and talking with teachers who remembered Lia.  I also introduced her to a few of my favorite classes that I have subbed for in addition to stopping by Ella's and Emmett's classes.  Afterwards, we met Lia's elementary friends outside the school at 12:45 and took several pictures.  By this time, several other graduates, parents, and former teachers were also arriving at the school.  It was so fun to see so many people who we haven't seen in years and briefly chat with them before the Grad Walk began.  After taking some group photos with all of the graduates together, the principal let the parents into the building first.  Once we were in place, the office staff started playing "Pomp and Circumstance" over the PA system and the graduates began walking down the hallway.  Just like last year, it was such a cool experience to watch these students proudly walk down their elementary school hallways all grown up!  Since I work at this school on a weekly basis and am very comfortable there, I ended up chasing the group of graduates around instead of staying in one spot with the other parents.  As a result, I was able to get video of Lia and her friends walking down Emmett's hallways and pictures of them walking down Ella's hallway.  It was so awesome!  The only bummer was that Lia and I had to leave the second the walk was over to race to the fairgrounds to get her to her graduation practice 20 minutes late.  Everyone else was able to stay and talk and even go out on the playground to play afterwards.  So although Lia missed out on the fun activities at the end, I am just so grateful that she was able to have this experience!

Lia standing in front of Shaw Road Elementary School where she was a student from 2013 to 2020.

The four of us standing outside Emmett's classroom.  Emmett was able to briefly wear Lia's cap which his 1st grade class thought was so funny!

Out of Lia's seven elementary school teachers, only one teacher, Mrs. Meyers, is still there.  Here is Lia pointing to her 5th grade picture that Mrs. Meyers hung up outside of her classroom.

Lia and Mrs. Meyers.

Although Lia's 4th grade teacher has moved to a different school in Tacoma, she came back for the Grad Walk.  Here she is posing with a bunch of her former students.

From left to right:

Sam, Lia, Ms. Arnett, Mollie, Sienna, and Rian

The group shot we were able to get of the graduates in front of the school sign.

A darling shot we got of Lia, Mollie, and Sienna who are her two closest buddies from preschool and elementary school.

Since more graduates had arrived in the minute or two since we took the group picture in front of the sign, we decided to take another one in front of the school.

Lia's good friend, Lilah, who moved to Kent after 4th grade came down for the Grad Walk.  We were all so surprised and happy to see her!  Here is another group picture I took with all of Lia's good friends from elementary school.

Left to right:

Rian, Sienna, Mollie, Lilah, Lia, Addy

Here is a screenshot from the video I took of Lia hugging Emmett.  Due to their unusually large age gap, I told Emmett he was probably the ONLY 1st grader to have a sibling graduating that year.  It was so fun to see them hug each other in the hallway.

Lia walking down Ella's hallway while giving all of the kids high fives.

La approaching Ella to give her a hug.

The darling photo I took of the two sisters hugging.  If I hadn't been in such a rush to get Lia to the fairgrounds for her graduation practice, I know that all of this would have made me bawl my eyes out.