Thryn | Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

Dear Class of 2014:

I am writing this to you because they never ask parents to give a commencement address. We’re too much in shock to say anything beautiful or poignant enough to mark the occasion.

My daughter Thryn, known to the family as Kate, graduates from High School today. I couldn’t be prouder, happier, sadder, or more in awe than I am today. She and all of you, every last one, are the coolest and most intelligent people I know. Today we hand over to you more than a slip of paper, we give you the keys to the sputtering and dangerous vehicle we call adulthood. It’s gonna be one Hell of a ride.

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It was a long hard Winter. It’s not letting go too easily here in the heartland, with Spring coming in short fits just long enough to give us all hope. But the transition is as bright as the green carpet of grass that covers the park, as pervasive as the smell of rain in the air, and as loud as the excitement along West Seventh Street. Each moment finds its own pace.

My daughter Thryn will graduate from High School in less than a month. Her dreams of hitting the road and finding a life beyond childhood color everything in her attitude now. The dark senioritis that wants to laze the last few moments collapses into anxiety in unpredictable fits of realization. Soon enough it really will be all about her, the desires of every teen made starkly real.

For her doting Dad it’s time to let go. As a parent, I can’t be good at everything.

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