When Nicholas surprised us all by coming into this world when I was almost 42, I always did the math: I’d be 60 when he graduated from high school. Well, that day finally arrived!

Yesterday he graduated from Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School and he heads to Colorado College in August. He graduated with straight As, something I certainly did not accomplish! But even more meaningful is the kind of human he is.

My delightfully curious, shy, silly, fun little child (see video below) has grown up to be highly creative, intelligent, resourceful, incredibly kind and compassionate, and loving young man. In the past couple of years he’s worked as the sound/AV tech for our church, learned some tough lessons about friendship, and taught himself how to make movies entirely on his phone. He created two fan fiction movies (Indiana Jones and the Mythical Menorah and 007 Empire of Shadows) and is writing a screenplay for a horror movie to be filmed this summer.

Graduating from high school has made Nick nostalgic. The day before graduation, he planned a “trip down memory lane” to visit some of his childhood places. Mike, his sister Kath, our niece Victoria, and I traveled along for the ride. We all had a great time!

We started at Ridgecrest Drive, where my family moved when I was 14 years old and where my parents lived until 9 years ago. I went up to the front door, introduced myself, and asked if we could go into the backyard. The “new” owner seemed relieved we didn’t want to go into the house (children, you know!) but was happy to show us the backyard, where many fun times were had! Nick decreed it smaller than he remembered.

Next we went to the Tigard Library, where Mike (the stay-at-home dad) took Nick every few weeks. He remembers getting out Scooby Doo DVDs and getting donuts!

Next we visited the Garden Home Recreation Center, where Nick and Kieran attended Small Friends preschool. (The school is sadly no more.) Nick also had fun basketball birthday parties in the gym a few times.

Next we stopped at childhood favorite Burgerville for lunch.

And then it was off to the zoo! So many fun memories for Nick. The other boys, too, but Nick seemed to love the zoo the most. The Oregon Zoo has a world-famous elephant program, and a baby elephant was born a few years after him: Samudra.

We hadn’t been there since 2016 or 2017, and it was also with our English relatives.

Just our luck, a new baby elephant was born in early February: Tula-Tu. She is ADORABLE. We enjoyed our wander and noticed many of the things that have changed over the years. I still miss the zoo train and its trip to Washington Park!

Next we headed to Washington Park and also sadly took a photo in front of the old Children’s Museum, a casualty of the pandemic.

The next leg involved schools: first Nick’s middle school–where he spent only a year and half in person before the pandemic hit–and then our beloved Maplewood Elementary School, where we were delighted to run into Liberty Looney, Chris and Kieran’s fourth-grade teacher. Then we saw David Kaplan, Nick’s fifth-grade teacher, who let us into the school and his classroom, where he had Nick’s graduation announcement on his wall! It was a wonderful end to the trip down memory lane!

Tuesday night he graduated in the PSU Viking Stadium. I asked for accessible seating for my parents, and they kindly seated us all together. Chris got to robe up with the faculty because he’s working at Nick’s high school as a paraeducator. I particularly enjoyed the student speaker as well as Kieran and Nick’s econ teacher. The drama teacher read the graduates’ names with dramatic aplomb, entertaining us all.

We were so fortunate to have Kath and Victoria with us for Nick’s big day!

I teared up a few times during graduation, and it’s just the start of what’s to come when I say goodbye to him in August in Colorado!

Although Nick has had a challenging senior year because of some issues with friends, it’s also made us grow closer. We’ve had long, in-depth conversations about life, love, and friendship. He’s grown up in so many ways in the past couple of years, and I’m excited for his future!