UPDATE 6/3, 12:00 pm: Graduation time changed to 5:30 pm today

So here we are. With luck and weather cooperation, Weston will send off its Class of 2022 graduates into the great big world at 6 pm 5:30 pm today. Please note that the Weston Owl will update if graduation is moved to tomorrow due to rain. I see 21% chance at 6 pm so I say go for it. I will also erase the prior sentence if it starts raining on me at graduation. If you are not planning to experience graduation, please avoid “downtown” Weston from about 5:00-7:30 pm or risk gridlock at the Intersection of Doom.

This year, for the first time, graduation has a rain date — in the past, the ceremony has been moved indoors if rain threatens but we all know how much prettier outside is…and so we have a rain date. If you have never been to Weston’s high school graduation please know that it is a community event. While seats are reserved for graduating seniors and their families, the grassy hillside is normally filled with portable chairs and blankets with residents supporting and cheering on our brand new graduates. It is one of my favorite “holidays” in Weston, with the feeling of an all-town picnic and celebration. You are ours, class of 2022, and we are yours.

The seniors will line up in their white jackets and white dresses, filling the sidewalk to walk down the steps towards the graduation platform. Smile and wave, people, smile and wave. After some speeches, and some musical interludes, the names of the graduates (all 160-ish) are read by School Committee members, two of whom are the moms of graduating seniors. Tears and joy, equally mixed.

And then the great rumpus begins–a reception on the green, the class of 2022 then does a super change-o into more casual duds and they are bussed off to parts unknown for the great overnight where they have fun ALL NIGHT and everyone else goes to bed and doesn’t worry about them because they are all together and having the time of their lives. Now that is a sentence.

Class of 2022, you shall be missed but I can’t wait to see where you go and how high you fly.

Go ‘cats!