'This is your year': Mum's message to middle son graduating primary school
By Lisa Almond|
When we welcomed your little brother you smiled bitter sweetly, "I love him, but I'm the middle child now. I hope I'm not forgotten."
I thought of that comment as I sat at your Year Six graduation recently. There was a mix of anxious high-school parents to-be and the old parent pros saying goodbye to primary school for the last time. Somewhere in the middle was me.
Two years ago, I sat in this seat as a nervous parent ready to wave my eldest off to high-school, and many years down the track I will cry (probably tears of joy) as I watch your brother finish his primary years.
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But right now kid, it's all about you. A middle child, yes, but forgotten, no. I may have done this before, and yes, I'll do it all again. But this year, this is your year. And nothing can take away from that.
You started school in a different world. A world that allowed me to attend reading groups in Kindy, to help at canteen and to be a part of a P&C that wasn't conducted over zoom. And there was no excuse to miss any Easter hat parade or book day dress ups because were expected to attend them all.
You still talk about when you dressed as a cricketer and the Australian cricket team shared your photo on Twitter. It feels like a lifetime ago, and yet it somehow also feels like yesterday.
You've always loved school, and you've never been afraid to be heard. You wrote your Kindy teacher a Christmas card that read "Thank you for a fun year. Sorry I talk so much, I get that from my mum."
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This theme continued throughout your schooling as you were voted on the Student Representative Council over numerous years until you finally gave up and said "nah, I'm out. I lose way too many lunches doing that."
Lunches were important, you see, because that's when you could play sport. Sport has been a love of yours throughout your schooling career, something that culminated in you being chosen for not one, but four separate representative teams in your senior primary years.
You didn't even play softball, but you were happy to give it a red-hot crack.
I watched you today in awe. You elbow-bumped your principal who offered you congratulations. Two years ago, I sat in this seat watching your brother จC completely ignorant to what lay ahead for your final years of primary school. Never having heard the word COVID or worn a mask outside a medical setting.
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You've spent the last two years of school in a world that we've never seen before. Classes have been over zoom. Assignments done on my phone. Masks are worn to class. And through it all you've adapted.
You've remained resilient. You've shown others what you're capable of. The fact I even got to watch today was truly remarkable in itself จC even if it was after I'd signed in and shown my double vax certificate. But I'm so glad I did because I got to watch you wave goodbye to an exciting part of your life.
Just like being the middle child, today you got to guide the way for those who will come after you, and next year, as you step foot in high school, you will follow the steps of those you've come before you.
You aren't the first, and you won't be the last, but that doesn't make your journey any less important. What you've done and what you've achieved จC in a world when even adults have struggled จC is nothing less than amazing.
As we left your graduation, I turned to you and asked if you were upset you didn't get an award. You laughed and said "No. I talk too much. I get that from my Mum."
Congratulations on finishing Year Six kid, I couldn't be prouder to be your Mum. And don't worry you'll never be forgotten; you talk too much.
