Because my school is so small here in comparison with my high school in Canada, the graduation ceremony is way different as well. There are only about 35 people in a graduation class, so each person is allowed to invite as many friends and family members as they want. Each student makes there own hand made invitations. I met a student in the graduating class, Nicol, when I went to the beach with friends in September. I also met her boyfriend, Daniel, and they both invited me to the ceremony. I had to buy gifts for both of them, a wallet for him and a makeup case for her.
The ceremony started off with the national anthem and the school hymn. Then, sixudent from my grade holding the flag of Chile and the school banner walked down the aisle slowly. Then came the graduating class. In pairs, they took one step every few seconds, walking to the graduating song (I don´t know what it´s called, but it´s the one they always use in movies.) It was very slow, it took almost 10 minutes just for everyone to walk down the aisle and take their seats on the stage.
Then they did each student individually. They came up to the front and their parents handed them their rings and diploma. It was much more personal than it would be at my high school. The school is so small that it doesn´t take too long for all the students to be called individually and then get pictures with their parents at the front. If they did that at Scona, we´d be there all night. This was still long, about 2 hours, but there was the school band and the choir to sing. And the kids in grades one and two sang a really adorable song. My friend Nicol was one of the speakers, and she said a little speech.
After, everyone crowded around the students to give them their presents. It took me almost an hour just to find my two friends in the crowd and give them their gifts. And I lost my mom in the process and took another half hour finding her. She was, of course, talking to another mom, completely oblivious to the fact that I had disappeared. It´s strange how much she reminds me of my own mom...
