Roukos Live: Lawson Graduates

Tuesday night was Lawson's big night: graduation. And for that, Lawson and his buddies decided to break out the bow ties. Who knew the event would be such a fashion statement for the boys? But in order to appreciate the significance of Lawson's new outfit, one must know how he came to get it.

Back in October, when Lawson was confirmed, I had planned for him to wear the same thing Davis wore: a jacket I'd purchased at the Goodwill for fifteen bucks and one of Davis's shirts. Unfortunately, I didn't get Lawson to try on those clothes ahead of time, so when he was getting dressed for the ceremony, nothing fit. Thank goodness Stephen stepped up to the plate:  "Go get a shirt and jacket from my closet."

And that was when we realized Lawson might be the youngest person in our house, but he's also the biggest, because he filled out that jacket more than Stephen did.

Fast forward four months, when we got a contract on our house and had to move out in thirty days. We did a major purge of closets and book cases. One weekend, Lawson and I sorted through the abundance of clothes supplied by cousins, friends, and other relatives. Lawson was supposed to grow into them, but while we weren't looking, he had actually grown past them. Lawson's friend Brennan had stayed the night that weekend, so as we purged, we said, "Brennan, could you wear this?" He ended up taking home three laundry bags of clothes, and we're so glad he could use them!

I took Stephen's sport coat and put it in his closet. Later that night, Stephen emerged from said closet, holding said coat and asked, "What's this?"

"It's your jacket," I said. "It's been in Lawson's closet."

"This isn't my jacket," Stephen said.

Oops. I'd given Stephen's jacket to Brennan and put the Goodwill jacket in Stephen's closet.

So when it came time for Lawson's graduation, we spend one day during spring break at the Men's Wearhouse, where we bought some sport coats--one for Lawson and one for Stephen. Lawson got a nice navy one, and for Stephen we got a tan one similar to the one we'd purged. We also got a great sale price!

And while we were shopping, Lawson said that he wanted to wear a bow tie, so he bought two of them.

When Lawson returned to school, he came home bearing a set of instructions saying that the boys had to wear a shirt and tie but no jacket was required. Great. We considered returning the jackets, but then we decided Lawson and Stephen could wear them on other occasions, and then Lawson decided he was going to wear his jacket to graduation anyway. And he looked so handsome!

My favorite line here: "I always look good."

So Brennan Jones, enjoy that dinner jacket! Sometime soon, you and Lawson can go on a double date to a nice restaurant and wear your fancy clothes.

As it turned out Mills and Drew also wore bow ties, and all those guys looked so dapper!

Graduation began with a Mass followed by the distribution of the diplomas. I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat on the side Lawson and Mills sat on, so I got lots of good video for this installment of Roukos Live: 

The students did the readings, and I think they did quite well, considering they'd had about five minutes to practice and someone had put about fourteen volumes of scripture on the lectern for the readers to sort through. Drew and Mills came through like cool professionals. And Claire was brilliant!
Pardon the shaky video. It's kind of hard to sit still in church.

Then Mrs. Newton, Mrs. Butler, and Monsignor Costigan awarded all the diplomas:

Of course, a graduation ceremony would not be complete without a cluster of family photos taken at the front of the church! Lawson was roasting in that cap and gown, and he was starving. But he patiently allowed us all to pose with him on his big night. 

And now Lawson and his friends are officially in high school! Congratulations! Stay tuned for more Roukos live installments as we watch Lawson Roukos Remler progress through ninth grade.