Ironically, today is the 3 week anniversary of my graduation from Self-Esteem 101 at Oprah University!!! Yayyyyy Me!!!

Oh you grumpy pusses. We had a jr. high graduation ceremony when I was a kid. We all stood on stage and they played "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. As I recall, I was the only one who pointed out that the song was completely inappropriate for the circumstances. I was basically told to shut up. God, I hated jr. high......What were we talking about again?

Thanks to the confusing variations between public schools, private schools and Catholic schools in Californium, I went directly from 8th grade in a Junior High that ran through 9th grade to a High School that ran 9th through 12th, therby depriving myself of a Junior High or Middle School graduation. No wonder I'm so screwed up.

My son had a kindergarten graduation. He wore one of those platter hats made out of yellow constuction paper. I was seriously fucking proud.

Yeah. I have had exactly one graduation. I didn't go get my PhD in person either.

I left my Harvard diploma taped to the fridge until it got food on it, then I lost it.

I graduated cylinder cum bustion from Pyrex University, breaking the glass ceiling for the first time.

I had an 8th grade graduation. We had it in the high school gym and wore gowns in the school colors: green for the guys, gold for the girls. No caps, though. I don't remember too much else about it. It was your basic graduation.

I sang at my high school graduation. (I was in a group - no solos for me, thank you!) That was the last graduation I had.

I didn't attend my college graduation. I graduated in December, and since I took a hiatus between the time I started college and the time I finished, I didn't really know anyone else in my class, so I didn't see the point of going.

I had an 8th grade graduation, but I went to a Catholic school. They said where everyone was going the following year, and who had scholarships, just like my HS ceremony.

The only graduations I have are on my washing power dispenser.

My own junior high school graduation left few traces on my memory. The graduation of my junior high school students in Tokyo, however, I surely will never forget.

In Japan, junior high graduation is a rite of passage as significant as high school graduation in America.

Most of my students had spent their final year studying hard in classes and in juku (cram school) for their high school entrance examinations. Japanese high schools (and some junior high schools) are career-track oriented. So by choosing a high school, say a science high school, students narrow their career goals to something within the field of science, and can expect then to progress to a science university.

By graduation, most of my students had received their entrance exam scores, and knew where they would be next year.

Shimura Dai-Yon Chuu-Gakko (Shimura #4 JHS) kids all lived near the school in Itabashi ward. So the prospect of going of to high school was the prospect of separating from childhood friends.

Junior high school graduation was a milestone for my students, a solemn, morning-long ceremony accompanied by processional band music, long speeches from education ministry officials, and tears from the graduating students (and their parents).

After the ceremony, there were long goodbyes and photo opportunities, as students thanked their teachers, hugged their friends, and stepped out into spring vacation and the start of high school.