As of Monday night, my son is no longer a high school student. His school’s graduation ceremony took place at Memorial Coliseum, a venue I hadn’t previously entered even though I’ve lived in this city since 1989. Go figure. Maybe I need to take up hockey fandom. (Or, perhaps, not.)

I think I’m glad that I didn’t graduate from a larger school, because good grief it took a long time to get through all of those kids’ awards and diplomas and what-not. At first we were delighted that Alex was sitting in the front row… then we found that they were cycling kids through starting from the back rows. It worked out, actually: It would’ve been much more tedious being elated early on at his name being called, then sitting through half an hour or so of listening to other kids’ names.

The girl playing the harp during one of the entertainment interludes was quite good, however. Staggering home at nearly 11pm after an event which started at 8pm wasn’t all that good… worth it, mind you. I feel like I’ve fulfilled one of those critical parenting milestones, you know? Yes, it’s as cool a feeling as you think it is.

My daughter, meanwhile, has a couple of years yet to go on her high school career. She just finished up and posted her art-class “final” project on her gallery, though, and I rather like it. Apparently she’s getting very good use out of that drawing tablet computer accessory.

I have awesome kids.