Behold, another Hough Family milestone:
The Cannonball's Graduation.
After twelve, arduous years, Kris and I managed to push Alayna through multiple grade levels and across the finish line. She's now a high school graduate. To say this whole thing has been surreal is an understatement - one minute they're running around the house with stuffed animals and fruit snacks, the next they're walking across a stage in a stadium in front of thousands of people accepting a diploma. It's a trip.
So Midland High and Dow High - the city's two high schools - hold their commencement ceremonies on the same day (which is beyond stupid, but I digress.) If weather prevails - and this year, fortunately, it did - they hold this event at the local baseball stadium, Dow Diamond (home of the Great Lakes Loons.) The schools alternate, year to year, which school goes on at 4:30pm and which school goes on at 6:30pm.
This year, as luck would have it, Midland High got to go first, which was preferable 'cause all those Dow folks would have to fight for seating only after the Midland High people had cleared out, and all that jockeying for position at the last minute would be an absolute nightmare. The icing on the cake here is that by the time Abby graduates in two years, Midland High will once again have the preferential spot at 4:30pm. Pretty stoked about that.
Considering there were over 250-ish students graduating alongside Alayna this year, the ceremony took well over and hour and a half. The procession and recession took just as long as the kids walking across the stage to get their diplomas, but the main bulk of the ceremony were the four speeches that were given by various presenters (student and faculty alike.) Four speeches themselves wouldn't have been all that bad, honestly, but the stupid school gave each presenter their own introductory speech prior to the actual speech. . . so you essentially had eight people giving speeches, not just four. Super boring, and more than redundant, so I really hope they iron out this nonsense before Abby graduates in 2028.
Anyway, a point to mention here. Kris and I were obviously super proud of Alayna for graduating and everything, but that paled in comparison to something she did during the ceremony that made us even prouder. Due to her grades and her academic goals in college - pursuing women's breast health in radiology at SVSU next year - the kid won multiple scholarships. Like, to the point where we're paying NOTHING for college next year. Not a dime. One of the scholarships she won was the Hailey Mae Memorial Scholarship, named after Alayna's classmate who was killed in a car accident two years ago, and whose death (which I mentioned previously) rattled the community. Alayna and this girl used to hang out in elementary school, and she even stayed at the girls' house for sleepovers back in the day, so the fact she won the scholarship was very bittersweet.
So, here's the point of pride for Kris and I. Hailey's mom presented Alayna with a box when she won the scholarship, and inside were a few daisy pins (her daughter's favorite flower), along with a bright pink rope, similar to the kind graduates wear over the gowns during commencement ceremonies. Alayna had requested to wear these ropes in Hailey's honor for the ceremony, and the school administration was more than cool with it,
but the school board shut it down because 'district guidelines' are very strict about what students can and cannot wear over their gowns during graduation. Not being deterred, and in an incredibly
punk rock move, Alayna rocked those pink ropes over her gown throughout the
entirety of the ceremony, and when she walked across the stage in front of the school board and her administrators, she
flaunted them. The principal hugged her as she passed and said, "You little rebel," or something along those lines.
It was badass.
Anyway, after the ceremony, the students were bussed back to Midland High, where Kris and Abby had to wait for an hour to navigate all the cars coming and going (the whole area is under construction, so that definitely didn't make things any easier), and got a few pics of Alayna in front of the school (and construction equipment) while they were there. Meanwhile, I headed straight home to collect assorted, extended family members as they rolled in. Kris grabbed several pizzas on her way home and we ate dinner and took some pics of family with the graduate in the backyard for a bit, before everyone took off around 8:30pm or so.
I'll leave you now with the pics and video we got throughout the evening, commemorating our first kid successfully out of high school. Behold - the Cannonball's Graduation. . .
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| The Procession (think that's what it is) kicks off, with the A-M students filing in and filling up the left half of the assembled body and N-Z filling the right. Alayna ended up halfway back in her section. |
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| Througout the entirety of this commencement ceremony, Kris and I were glued to Alayna's feet and those dangerous heels she insisted on wearing - we were praying she wouldn't topple forward and eat shit in front of thousands of people. |
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| About 45 minutes later, once all the redundant speeches were over and done with - who wants to sit and listen to those anyway - the kids started being dismissed by rows to walk across the stage and accept their diplomas. |
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| Those shoes don't even look comfortable. But I guess 'comfort' isn't why women wear those things, right? |
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| That dog there ('Link,' Abby informed me) is some teacher's dog, and he has free rein over the school, and goes wherever he wants. Like walks the halls between classes and everyone knows him and is chill with him. That's the kinda world I want to live in. |
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| Queued up in position off to the side of the stage. |
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| About to start the dicey stage walk (we were REALLY nervous about those heels, I cannot stress this enough, folks.) |
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| Kids had to to shake this dude's hand first in order to get their diploma (he's part of the school board, I assume.) |
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| The long walk across the stage in front of thousands of people. No pressure. |
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| Shaking hands with the principal. |
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| "You little rebel." So glad the hired photographer was able to get this exchange, it's one of my fav pics now. |
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| A little while later, once all the kids had walked across the stage for their diplomas (and with over 250 kids, that shit took a looooong time), some other random guy had the kids stand and gave them the 'charge,' or whatever you call it, where they all move their tassel from one side of their cap to another, which, I believe, is the 'official' moment that they technically graduate. |
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| The Recession (not like the 2008 one.) |
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| As you can tell in the pics and the following video, Alayna's heels ended up holding up the line a bit on the walk out. But hey, at least she didn't fall. . . |
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| So while I stayed back at the house and entertained relatives who were starting to roll in for the post-ceremony dinner, Kris met Alayna back at Midland High once all the buses had dropped the kids back off at the school. They decided to hang out there for a few photo ops. |
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| Abby went along with Kris so she could take pics with all the seniors she knew who were graduating (like Lexi, here.) |
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| And a couple chicks from her Pom Team (I have no idea who these kids are.) |
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| Obligatory one with the Cannonball. |
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| Kris wanted a few pics of Alayna in front of the school's main entrance, and it quickly divulged into a photo shoot. |
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| Now a couple with this Chemics banner. . . |
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| Sebastian met them up there as well, so she of course got one with him. |
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| Alayna and Claire (the other girl who received the Hailey Mae Scholarship.) Claire didn't wear her pink ropes to the commencement ceremony, opting to wear one of the little daisy pins instead. |
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| Not sure whose idea this was to get a pic posed with the construction equipment that's parked out in front of the school (Eastlawn has been torn up for weeks, with this sort of equipment sitting around all over the damn place.) |
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| Had no idea these claws were this frickin' big, that's insane. |
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| Right before they took off to get pizza, Kris had Alayna get one up on top of the school sign (I'm sure Sebastian lifted her up there, there's no way she got up there all by herself in a graduation gown and those shoes.) |
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| The Heels. |
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| About eight years later, Kris, the kids, and the pizzas finally showed up to the house, and while folks dug into the sixty pizzas that Kris felt was required for feeding a dozen or so people, we got a few pics of the Cannonball with various friends and family members (like Makayla here.) |
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| One with Papa. |
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| A solo one. |
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| With Grandma and Papa John |
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| The Houghs, 2.0 |
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| With Papa and Nana |
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| Another one with Sebastian |
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| With Grandma Marcy |
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| Left to Right: Victoria, her son Julian, Alayna, Mickey (Marcy's twin), Nagatha Christie, Marcy, and Abby. |
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| Our friend Mees screenshot this and shared it on the wives thread - apparently the Midland Daily News used a pic of Alayna as their thumbnail image for the coverage link to the school's graduation feed/pics/article/whatever on Facebook. Pretty awesome way to close out the Cannonball's Graduation, that's for damn sure. |
- Brian
So Midland High and Dow High - the city's two high schools - hold their commencement ceremonies on the same day (which is beyond stupid, but I digress.) If weather prevails - and this year, fortunately, it did - they hold this event at the local baseball stadium, Dow Diamond (home of the Great Lakes Loons.) The schools alternate, year to year, which school goes on at 4:30pm and which school goes on at 6:30pm. 
This year, as luck would have it, Midland High got to go first, which was preferable 'cause all those Dow folks would have to fight for seating only after the Midland High people had cleared out, and all that jockeying for position at the last minute would be an absolute nightmare. The icing on the cake here is that by the time Abby graduates in two years, Midland High will once again have the preferential spot at 4:30pm. Pretty stoked about that.
Considering there were over 250-ish students graduating alongside Alayna this year, the ceremony took well over and hour and a half. The procession and recession took just as long as the kids walking across the stage to get their diplomas, but the main bulk of the ceremony were the four speeches that were given by various presenters (student and faculty alike.) Four speeches themselves wouldn't have been all that bad, honestly, but the stupid school gave each presenter their own introductory speech prior to the actual speech. . . so you essentially had eight people giving speeches, not just four. Super boring, and more than redundant, so I really hope they iron out this nonsense before Abby graduates in 2028.
Anyway, a point to mention here. Kris and I were obviously super proud of Alayna for graduating and everything, but that paled in comparison to something she did during the ceremony that made us even prouder. Due to her grades and her academic goals in college - pursuing women's breast health in radiology at SVSU next year - the kid won multiple scholarships. Like, to the point where we're paying NOTHING for college next year. Not a dime. One of the scholarships she won was the Hailey Mae Memorial Scholarship, named after Alayna's classmate who was killed in a car accident two years ago, and whose death (which I mentioned previously) rattled the community. Alayna and this girl used to hang out in elementary school, and she even stayed at the girls' house for sleepovers back in the day, so the fact she won the scholarship was very bittersweet.
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