Graduating in Brazil

I was homeschooled from pre-school till 12th grade. One of the few, though the number is growing in the USA, that never attended a traditional school. I'm always asked if I felt that I missed out. No pep rallies? No friends? No graduation? My answer? Nope. Some homeschoolers miss those things but I never felt that I needed them. If you know my family then you know why. We are good at entertaining ourselves.

My grandfather is the pastor of a church in Florida full of lovely, kind people who decided to throw me a surprise graduation upon my completion of High School. I was 16 years old and got to experience wearing the silk robe, walking down the aisle to Pomp and Circumstance, and eating lots of cake afterwards. I was the only graduate and it was still fun.

Last weekend we were able to attend the graduation of a dear friend. It was his college graduation in Brazil.

It started at 7:30 PM and we did not get home that night till 1:00 AM.

Thankfully I had a long nap and a sip or two of Brian's cappuccino before the ceremony.


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I have to tell you, if you think American graduations are fun , you've never been to a graduation in Brazil!

There was music! I can not verify this but I do believe the theme song to Star Wars was one of the melodies chosen for the walk down the aisle. Awesome.
There were balloons! Bull horns! Vuvuzelas.
It was all very fun and cool.
The graduates were color coded...as in Medicine graduates wore yellow sashes, International Relations wore red, Computer Engineers wore blue, etc.
The graduates were very proud and joyful. None of them appeared to take for granted their hard work and accomplishment.

All this to say, I never really felt that I "missed out" in not graduating from College, or being in a large graduating class in high school, until...

I went to this Brazilian graduation.

Now I wish I could graduate...Brazilian style. :)

And as for our friend, who graduated top of his class, we're so very happy for you! And thanks for letting us share with you that night.


His grand entrance:
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He and his wife: Happy, happy, happy!
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Felicidades!
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1 comments:

Christine said...

How fun! I must say, that cappuccino looks delectable!