Graduation without YouBy Samantha Halle1Looking through tears at the cars in front of me, I thought about all the moments in the past few months that would have brought tears to my own dad’s eyes; the moments that would have made him proud.In one month, I’ll graduate from high school — the countdown to the end.2 One by one, things are starting to end. And3, I’m one step closer to the4 moment that’s played in my head for years and years: walking across that stage to graduate.It’s a moment that the Class of 2010 has looked forward to since September; one that we have longed for on countless occasions. Whether viewed as an escape from our high school walls, or the harvest5 of years of projects, tests, and quizzes, graduation is a celebration of success — a celebration in which you’re surrounded by your teachers, family, and friends. But as the days inch closer and closer to June 18th, a fact that I’ve known for seven and a half years has become increasingly more real: my dad won’t be there.It’s something I’ve struggled（挣扎） 6with all year. For me, graduation stands for7 all the things he has missed and will miss. It’s knowing that he won’t be there to watch me with his fill-the-room smile. That he won’t be here to take an entire memory card’s worth of pictures, and that the family pictures that are taken will feel incomplete. I won’t get a bear hug while hearing him tell me how fast I’ve grown up, and he can’t purposefully play tricks on8 me just for laughs. Nor can he talk with9 his friends about my successes because he wasn’t here to experience them with me.But it’s even more than all of that. It’s realizing that he never knew me as a teenager,...
