Parents deal with upcoming graduation
Sports reporter
Editor's note: This article marks the third installment of the Marion High School graduation series.
The story will focus on parents of the graduates of the class of 2008.
Four days.
Ninety-six hours.
Not even a full school week.
Parents of the class of 2008 don't have much time left before their children become adults, or for their sake: children furthering their education before entering the real world.
"It's pretty stressful," graduation parent Keith Collett said. "All of a sudden you see the end in sight."
Collett's son Hank will walk across the stage Sunday, and it will be the first of three times Keith and his wife Anne will watch one of their children do so.
"It's bittersweet," Keith Collett said. "But he's done a decent job of preparing us for his departure. They all do."
Joking aside, and no matter how many times children make their parents angry, it's hard to see them go.
Pam Jones, whose son Keith will graduate from MHS as well, is already preparing for the day.
"Part of me will miss him terribly," she said. "But it's time. He's ready."
Jones will attend Kansas State University in the fall to study aerospace engineering.
Pam is excited, but she said people have asked her how he could do that to a family who bleeds Crimson and Blue.
"He's going there for the education," Pam said. "And he told us he will still root for KU basketball."
After all, he has to have his priorities in order.
Emotional time
Parents of high school graduates play a unique role, and in the end it might be the most emotional of all.
Most of the MHS graduates are so busy worrying about what they need to do to graduate, they aren't thinking about what lies ahead.
The teachers have been through the drill many times before, and are used to the graduation ceremonies.
(Although more than one MHS teacher has admitted to crying during the ceremony.)
Parents on the other hand are watching their children grow up in the span of just one day.
In that one Sunday afternoon the passing of time can hit a parent like a brick, shattering their child-like memory of their son or daughter like a thin, glass window.
But, as Pam Jones said, it's time to move on.
"I'm so excited for Keith," she said. "He's work hard, and he's always been determined."
Grant Thierolf always has been determined to not let graduation affect the final few weeks of school or sports for his students and athletes.
He said teachers and coaches at MHS do a good job of keeping the students focused on the tasks at hand, all while preparing for graduation.
However, his son Matt will be part of the graduation class of 2009, something Thierolf and his wife Deanna have yet to experience.
"Maybe next year, as a parent of a senior, it will be different," Grant said.
It remains to be seen for Thierolf what it will be like, and that might be the reason so many first-time graduate parents are so emotional and stressed out.
"We watch other people go through it. We know what the procedures are like," Keith Collett said. "But nobody can really prepare you for the sense of time passing."
The whole senior year, according to Keith Collett, begins to prepare parents.
"It's a series of lasts," he said. "It hit me when I realized I was sitting in the last Thierolf post-game football speech."
That is unless his two younger daughters pick up football.
If not, Collett will forever remember that as the beginning of his oldest child's ascent into adulthood.
Second time around
For parent Laura Legg of Marion, it's a series of lasts, for a second time.
Her daughter Cassy will graduate Sunday before attending Auburn University in the fall, two years after Laura's son Clayton Garnica graduated from MHS.
"It's not as scary because you know there is life after high school," Legg said of going through graduation a second time.
Two years ago she experienced what Collett, Jones, and other first-timers will this weekend.
"You wonder whether you did OK," Legg said. "You work really, really hard for 18 years, and the goal is achieved in one day. It's like whoomph.
"The first time it does seem like you are losing a child."
One thing all parents can agree on is the fact they are excited, yet sad and even worried at the same time.
But graduation is a step everyone must take, and while parents may think they want their children to never grow up and move on, after it's over they realize it's all for the best.
"I think it's knowing we lived through it, and it wasn't anything too dramatic," Legg said. "They're still your kids."
In four days, they'll be their big kids.
