It’s a big graduation weekend here in Brookings for us, as we have daughter #4, Sydney, graduating from Brookings High School today.
We had her Graduation Party Friday night where friends and family gathered around a rented bouncy house to send her off into adulthood… which seems a bit incongruent… but it’s a probably a bit more tame of a graduation party than they were when I graduated, and many of them involved beer for the 18 year olds (with the 18 y.o. drinking age way back when.)
Sydney has always been my ultra-competitive, and self-assured over-achiever, who has always challenged herself academically in preparation for her next steps in the world. Right now, she has her eye set on Law School, and is set to be a political science major (or its equivalent) at Augustana University.
In a couple of hours, the actual graduation will be official, and she’ll immediately be off and down the road to be a counselor at Girls’ State. Between her working and having other activities, I suspect it will will seem to be an all too short summer, and then she’s out the door.
Sydney has been the child who has so far matched the fervor and love with which I’ve embraced Republican politics in South Dakota the most, so it will be especially fun to see if she continues her interest in college. For her “Senior Trip” which we try to allow our kids, where they get to pick a destination, she selected Washington DC, where she’s going to visit the halls of Government, as well as see the founding documents of our country.
No matter what path her life takes after that, I know that she understands that people can change the world through their involvement in the political process. And that’s knowledge that everyone should hope their children understand.
Congrats Sydney. One more tool in toolbox to do good in this world.