I took a trip to Hemet California to watch my niece graduate from Tahquitz High School. The graduation was fun and very festive. Not at all like the 6 I have been through with my own children. I noticed that the kids could choose their seats and sit by their friends instead of sitting alphabetically. Each graduate gave a card to the reader with their name spelled phonetically on it.
This graduation ceremony was a time to celebrate the students achievements and it was so festive with fireworks at the end. The spectators and graduates alike were encouraged to clap and hoot and holler as the graduates received their diploma's. Some of the students danced their way to the platform and back to their seats again. No one minded that each one of the graduates celebrated in their own way and as a whole they made up the entire graduating class.
I wonder how many times in our weight loss journeys we try to make everyone line up alphabetically so to speak so that everything goes according to plan. Seriously would this journey not be so much more fun if we could just be with our friends and celebrate it the way that fits our friends and our own personalities.
I think that I came away from that graduation ceremony with a determination to stop trying to fit everyone into the preconceived ceremony that has been the past and to start a new tradition. A tradition of celebrating each and every achievement of this journey and to encourage everyone I come in contact with along the way to do the same thing.
This journey is not about the small failures along the way but it is about the graduation from our younger uneducated self to the educated graduate who is about to embark on the next journey. Yes I have graduated from one program and have begun another. I will celebrate my success in the way that is most my style and encourage others to do the same.
Go celebrate your success and let the fireworks begin!!
