I Took 1,719 Graduation Photos, Mostly of the Dog

Because how could I not, when she is genuinely THAT CUTE!

Also that miserable having to wear a preschool graduation cap and gown that we bought her off of Facebook Marketplace.

I think it's this one, so at $8 we probably didn't really get a great deal on it, but 1) this was my very first Facebook Marketplace purchase, and 2) I'm uncomfortable with haggling, so anything below list price feels like a good get. 

Fortunately(?), the kid's cap and gown come free with her tuition!

I did end up ironing that gown in my hotel room while watching the PWHL, after sending the husband and kid off to buy candy to sneak into the movie theater later that night. Project Hail Mary was even better on IMAX than it was on the regular screen!

I didn't get every photo on my shot list, but honestly, I got a LOT more than I thought I would! I got a lot of great photos showing off the cap and gown from behind--

--and some really good detail photos of her cap with its "2026" charm:

I couldn't quite figure out how to make her favorite picture book or stuffed animal work in photos, but I got some shots in anyway:

But all the photos of her and her best friend in their matching caps and gowns are priceless!

If you zoom in on Luna in any photo, though, you can see that she is absolutely OVER our nonsense, lol. She would never actively protest, but I'm cracking up at this close-up of her just staring resentfully into the middle distance:

Also, her jowls tucked behind the elastic band that I stitched onto that baby graduation cap!

I tried to take most of my photos in campus spots that were meaningful to the kid, but sometimes I veered off-road a bit. I'm pretty sure the only time the kid has so much as stepped into the campus chapel was during Admitted Student Day, when the campus female a cappella group serenaded us with Billie Eilish, but still. It's a lovely spot for some photos!

My favorite photo spot was the kid's favorite classroom on campus, although the photos that I took there aren't super sharp--why do classrooms seem to always have such bad lighting?!? But the science building on this campus, and the classrooms inside it, are on the old-school side in just the right way, with scientific charts on bulletin boards (my favorite is this one) and cases full of fossils and cabinets full of rocks and shelves full of the textbooks of generations past:

I forgot to even put a graduation prop in this photo--there were a thousand boxes of rocks, each one hand-labeled, and just between us I lost my head a little. If you ever want to look at my one thousand photos of hand-labeled rocks, let me know!

It would be so bad to steal from a school, but if that fish fossil ever turns up missing, they should probably send a SWAT team to my house...

And just like that, we're already doing things for the last time. Last time reading the posters of bad science jokes on the walls in the physics department:

Last time paying waaaay too much for admittedly delicious local hard cider:

I'm genuinely embarrassed to tell you this, but this bottle was over $30!

Last time bumming off the kid's meal plan points for chicken and fries:

All this, and she still always has so many meal plan points leftover on the last day of school that she buys out the undergrad grocery every year. We're always stocked with snacks every summer!

I'm really looking forward to all the family events and other graduation festivities that her school hosts, since this will be our first proper graduation from a genuine institution, and even more so now that I know I can relax and not worry about getting the perfect photo of the kid in her cap and gown.

Ooh, there's a family party the night before her graduation ceremony. DO YOU THINK THEY'LL HAVE KARAOKE?!?!?!?

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!