Graduation Is About the Kids. But It’s Mostly About the Parents

The people who this means the most to are noticed the least.

It’s graduation week at the University of Georgia. When you live in a college town, Graduation, one of the biggest moments of your life when it happens to you or someone you love, can’t help but start to feel a little rote. It really is the same thing every year. It becomes impossible to get a restaurant reservation for a full fortnight. Traffic becomes overwhelming. The line on Broad Street full of people waiting to get their picture taken under the Arch — it is UGA tradition that you are not supposed to walk under the arches until you graduate, and thus having your picture taken standing underneath symbolizes that you’ve made it — goes all the way down the block. It is the time of year when the locals, the townies if you will, hunker down and wait for all the students to finally leave so that we may have our town back. There is a certain flutter in the heart when you see the kids in their caps and gowns, just walking around, knowing what that moment means to them and their family. But you are also ready for them to leave. They’re going somewhere else. But you live here.

But more than anything else graduation week, I look at the parents. It is quite something to watch middle-aged people have no idea what they…