We'll start with Lawson, who is finishing up eighth grade. Today (Thursday, May 16th) is his last day of school, and true to Catholic school fashion, it's a half day. The eighth graders at St. Peter the Apostle School are enjoying several days of festivities, including an opportunity yesterday to carve their names in stone (well, cement) in a slab behind the school.
For the record, that's not a cigarette in Lawson's mouth. It's a popsicle stick. Also, for the record, Lawson is wearing a hoodie in the middle of May. That's because he was supposed to wear his gray St. Peter's tee shirt to school. But in his six a.m. stupor yesterday morning, he grabbed the wrong shirt, and didn't notice until he got to school that he was advertising Seagram's Crown Royal. He knew his teacher would have kittens if she saw him promoting alcohol on school grounds, so he went straight to the lost and found and retrieved a sweatshirt to cover his mistake. He said he roasted all day. I notice that today he made sure he was appropriately dressed.
Tonight the eighth graders will celebrate class night, which is an occasion for these fourteen year-olds to celebrate moving on to high school by eating hot dogs and hamburgers, singing a few songs they haven't learned all the lyrics to, doing a dance they haven't learned all the steps to, and conveying their best wishes to the St. Peter's seventh graders.
Friday is a "skip day" party at Coach's corner. Saturday, they will all climb on a chartered bus and take an exciting trip to Carowinds in Charlotte, NC for a full day of thrills and possibly a few upset tummies.
If I were going on that trip, this is the ride I'd choose:
Monday they will have another party at the Starcastle arcade. What I've learned after sending two boys through St. Peter's is that the celebration of eighth grade graduation is more extensive than graduation from high school. So I want to throw a shout out to Holly Price, the eighth grade class mom, who almost pulled her hair out planning these events and making sure our kids had a memorable last year at St. Peter's.
Oh! I almost forgot. Then they get to actually graduate. That will happen Tuesday night with a ceremony in the church followed by a dinner in the parish center. Many thanks go out to Kathleen McCarthy, who has organized the dinner portion of that occasion. And finally, many thanks and sympathies go out to the eighth grade teachers and the principal of St. Peter the Apostle School for tolerating our kids' adolescent senioritis. After Tuesday is over, they should all gather at Spanky's on Tybee for a hard-earned margarita.
More photos will appear as Lawson's graduation activities take place, but for now, we'll send him good wishes for this turning point from grammar school to high school. BC, here he comes!
And then there's Davis, who set off Monday for a five-week cruise on the Empire State, the training vessel of the SUNY Maritime College. All week I've been telling friends and acquaintances that Davis is gone on his cruise, and they've all replied with "Oh, how lucky. He will certainly have a lot of fun!"
That's Davis right there.
Well, I think he will have fun, but not in the way most people assume. He's not on a pleasure cruise. This excursion is a requirement of his curriculum as he works toward his degree in marine transportation. He will spend five weeks on the crew of this cargo vessel, which will take him to ports in New Orleans; St. John's, Newfoundland; and Dublin, Ireland. He'll have time to explore each location, but his purpose is to gain experience operating this ship. Pretty cool.
Right now, he's anchored off the coast of Montauk while the crew does a series of drills before sailing south. Davis said he had watch yesterday morning, for which he had to get up at 4:30 a.m. He performed his duties and then went back to his bunk for a short nap until he had to report for formation at noon. Unfortunately, he slept through formation.
Oops.
When I talked to Davis, he was still wondering about the consequences of his oversight. We were both surprised those repercussions weren't immediate. Let's hope that they're not severe. Typically when a crew member fails to report to formation, someone must go find him. All members on the ship must be accounted for to ensure no one has gone overboard. However, in this instance, no one came looking for Davis. Could it be that Davis's error will be overlooked because whoever was in charge goofed up even more? We'll find out soon enough.
I bet that's the last time Davis sleeps through formation.
I'll watch out for Davis's occasional emails, but meanwhile, I'll watch the progress of the Empire State on MarineTraffic.com. I hope he takes photos of the places he's been. I've been documenting his life through photos for the last nineteen years, and now that he's sailing around the world, I hope he will continue to do so himself.
This past year has been quite a turning point for Davis, as well as for his mama. He's all grown up now, and it's hard for me to absorb the fact that this little boy...
(Even then he loved the water)
Has grown up into this young man:
Now, in the next four years, we'll see where life leads Lawson.
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