Friday 15 November 2013

Highschool Graduation Night

My beautiful eldest daughter, Chloe, is graduating high school tonight!

They have had a fun day at the beach today, and tonight is the graduation ceremony.  It's a strange time - happiness at finally finishing twelve, or thirteen, years of school, and sadness a the end of an era and separation.



We don't do the cap and gown grad thing here for high school, and the other devastating thing for my daughter is that her grad dress has not arrived - she ordered it from China eight weeks ago.  I like to think it's because of the Philippines crisis and weather - it helps to think that really a grad dress is not so important in the big scheme of things. So she will either wear the back up dress I bought her at the thrift shop, or her Deb dress.  Depends how she feels tonight I suppose.

Chloe is only the second generation of my family to graduate high-school - my mother went to secretarial school at fifteen - so it' is pretty exciting.  In the 1950s, only one in five university students were female. By the late 80s, when I finished high-school, things were more even - not only had women's social positions improved, but entry into occupations traditionally dominated by women (teaching and nursing) required higher education qualifications. I actually wanted to do teaching, but my parents insisted on university - I did one year of architecture before moving to college to study interior design.  Here is my high school graduating class photo - got to love the 80s!

Strathmore high school Class of 1987
In 2009, one third (34%) of Australian men and two fifths (40%) of Australian women aged 25-64 years had a tertiary qualification, and by 2011 57% of higher education students in Australia were women.

My daughter has applied for university for 2014 - she wants to study pharmacy.  Unfortunately for me that means her staying on campus in Townsville, four hours away from us.  She seems pretty happy about the prospect though!

First we have tonight to get through, and then the great tradition of  'Schoolies" for the next week - she and her friends are off to beautiful Airlie Beach. Here she is getting ready for tonight (and face booking) - it's hot and humid today, so she's in my bedroom with the air-con on instead of the hot bathroom.


Oh, and the face booking worked - a friend has just dropped off Chloe a dress, one her sister wore for grad five years ago, and the same color as the one we'd ordered!

Thanks Jala xx

Click on my instagram link for updated grad photos!

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