Done!

My Asher will graduate this weekend! As of last night, he's completely done with all his finals and coursework and is quite happy about that. :) As we finish out the week, I figure it's a good time to share his announcements. Like his brother before him, Asher was not a fan of official senior portraits or any of the official Class of 2021 merchandise. He finally consented to letting me take some pictures in February at a nearby park, and I made up these announcements:

The high school has decided on the indoor graduation ceremony on Sunday with only two guests per graduate. (To be honest, it makes us a bit uncomfortable since it will easily be the largest indoor gathering we've been to since March of last year. With that in mind, we deliberately made sure to get our vaccines as soon as we were eligible so that we'll be fully vaccinated before the ceremony. I worry about those who weren't able to get that process started in time, and we'll obviously leave Micah at home.) The ceremony will be live-streamed for those who want to watch. Also, we won't be having a party at this time. With Micah still unvaccinated and extended family mostly unvaccinated and travel being difficult/unwise at this time, it's just not the right time for us to do that. We're hoping to do something with his friends later this summer and will see various extended family members separately in the coming months. 

Regardless of the less boisterous celebration this year, though, we're so very proud of our Asher. His high school experience was anything but normal...starting out with a year of homeschooling, then a year of part time homeschooling and part time at CEC, then a semester of "normal" high school taking college courses at the CEC campus, then a semester of the same but interrupted by a pandemic and finished out online, and then a year of college courses taken remotely (except for physics labs). And, amid all that, he still managed to complete his Associate of Science as a straight A student!!

Along the way, he's also earned his second degree black belt, traveled to Costa Rica with a school group, completed a summer internship, done multiple job shadows (in person and via video call), volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, enjoyed parkour and karate and demo team, and traveled aplenty with us. He visited and applied to and was accepted at five different colleges and is starting to get excited about heading to Omaha this August.

So happy for this guy!