Celebration: Graduation in my School as My Son Emerged a Valedictorian

Hi friends, it's been a while here due to some situations beyond my reach. I only pop in and out, but I have a singular reason to make this post for documentation purposes. Some events are worth documenting in order to look back at the memories of them.

^{The graduate (my son)}

It was a beautiful day for me on Saturday 26th July as I watched my students graduate from both the junior and senior secondary school. Nothing gives more joy to the teachers, parents and school management that the children are growing, and graduation ceremonies are one of those events that make us look back and say thank you to God.

As we know, the 2024/2025 school session is drawing to an end as various schools in the state, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria vacated with graduation ceremonies to celebrate their pupils/ students. My school (place of work) took its turn on Saturday 26th July.

As a staff member of the school, I woke up early to prepare for school on time despite the fact that it was a statewide environmental sanitation day with restrictions on movement. This is because I needed to prepare my son, who was also graduating from nursery class too. As usual, I was there on time to receive my students and also assist the school management.

^{Picture with my boss, she was so beautiful}

The event began with an opening prayer, followed by procession of the graduates to their seats with their parents walking beside them. I was an excited mother walking beside my adorable son as my husband was yet to arrive due to his work that Saturday morning.

The event went on as different presentations were made by different classes while the graduates, parents, staff of the school and invited guests sat comfortably watching the different presentations by the pupils/students. It wasn't too long. The event almost drew to a close when all the presentations were made. The MC announced the first three positions in all the classes, from the nursery to the secondary arms of the school.

I briefly stepped aside to attend to a need I was assigned to by the school management. On my return, the announcements were made and so, I didn't hear when my son's name was mentioned. The event finally came to an end. My husband went to the children's classes to pick up their results. He was the one who informed me that our son had taken the first position. Again, I was busy with the distribution of results and gifts to my students where I dashed into the school administrator's office to make an enquiry.

^{Picture of myself and my son}

She said, "Congratulations Mrs Ntoe, your son emerged the best graduating pupil in his class." Jesus o! I screamed and began to drop tears of joy because I remembered how that same boy couldn't write in his pre-kindergarten class. He picked up the second term of his kindergarten class 1 and from there began to excel. As a child, I didn't really expect much, although we put a lot of effort into seeing that he passed all his exams, from reading and making him spell some difficult words, because they had to read and write their exams by themselves without the assistance of the teachers. I remember the day for mathematics. We practically slept late because I wanted him to do his mathematics well. At last, hard work paid off.

At age 5, I wasn't that active or even reading, but he did more than we as parents have. Lastly, the school administrator said, he'll get free tuition from the school proprietor next term. Wow! So much? I didn't know when I started dancing and rejoicing. His own came too early. I remember how I went through my secondary school through scholarships. This was good news for me.

^{Picture of myself with my children on the graduation}

When I said I was excited, believe me, I was so excited. It looked as though I was the only one whose child graduated that day. Or maybe he was even in secondary school like the likes of my amazing students, @wizzyboy3 and @fortwis09 who also graduated from the school for junior and senior secondary respectively.

However, the event of that day brought Steemians in my community together as they had wards and relatives in the school. Like my one and only Mama @ngoenyi whose two children graduated (@fortwis09 and @wizzyboy3). @bossj23 I even told him to take a picture of my son as he was taking pictures at the event. @steemnurse01 and my boss @benton3 and a host of others were in attendance at the event.

Pictures all captured with my phone itel A70