I LOVE THEM TOO

by Julie Carter

Dear Moms and Dads,
I want to thank you for your great kids. I am blessed to be able to share with you in their successes as their final days in high school bring the accolades they have earned.
"Our" babies are about to graduate.
I sit at each end-of-the-year ceremony and watch them with tears in my eyes and pride busting out all over, just as you do.
For eight years I've followed them around to sporting events, FFA, 4-H, county fair, rodeo, academic showcases with my camera in hand and note pad ready.
They were 10 years old and about to embark on their fifth grade adventure when I started this journey of documenting them for the "county news" section of the newspaper.
They were shorter, chubbier, tinier, ganglier with freckles and bad hair cuts or wild pony tails and braces. They giggled and snorted over nothing and traveled in pairs and trios of silliness.
The first couple of years they ducked my camera and were shy about it most of the time.
When that was over they followed me like ducklings wanting to know if I'd put them in the paper and they delighted in antics that might get them there.
Those kids in the outer county schools soon became part of my life. I watched them grow and mature.
I watched their personalities take shape and the foundations of their adulthood form one block at a time.
Teachers, coaches, family and friends all added another block, year by year ... building the child that would become the adult to be sent out the door this May.
I know great kids don't just happen. They are created, encouraged, admonished, nurtured, guided and directed.
They take a step forward and fall back two. They are caught, lifted, nudged and pushed toward a standard of excellence set before them.
Sometimes they rebel, argue, give up on themselves and think the world hates them. They are irritated by their parents who have got to be the stupidest people in the world, not to mention so archaic in all they know about anything.
They vow to never, ever be like them when they grow up.
They are sure that the system that held them captive for 13 years was pointless. They plan their escape with an attitude of "I'll show you I don't need you to tell me what to do every day."
Which is pretty much the point, but most of them haven't figured that out just yet.
I love those kids, all of them. I feel so very much part of the lives I have documented in word and picture. I've been there for their set backs and their victories. I've watched them work hard and gain great ground in so many places.
I hold such hope in the future when I see the great young men and women they have so quickly grown to be.
I am proud with and for you, the parents, who sacrificed, hoped, prayed and worked through each stage of their life to bring them to this portal of the future.
I thank you for allowing me into their lives and into yours.
Your children are a gift, not just to you, but to the world that is about to become their challenge. You've done your job and done it well.
As you take your hands off them and let them fly, together we will watch them take wing into the next phase of their lives. Summer will dry the tears that mark this traditional transition.
With great anticipation, I will turn and look behind me at those budding young adults that will follow these into next year.
Each one is stretching and striding to find their place in the mighty footsteps left behind by this class of 2010.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net.