My 5th Grade Graduation Experience! By: Eureka Subedi

My 5th grade graduation was the best! Although we could not be celebrating at school with the rest of my friends, I am glad that we were still able to make a drive thru for out graduation! We decorated my mom’s car with a poster staying “5th grade Graduation” we also had stickers we wrote my name with and other cool decorative items. We lined up at Dick’s Sporting Goods parking lot and all the 5th graders were there with their cars decorated too. As we got closer and closer to the building as the long, long line of cars started to move. Finally entering the building honks and cheers and laughter grew every where! We circled around the Parent Pick Up lane driving all the way up to the parking lot in the play ground with kids showing heads through the bog sun roof and I stood too, standing tall with my mom’s phone in my hands I took videos of everyone. I do not know how to describe what I was feeling I was a mixture of happiness and sadness, I guess it was bitter sweet. I was happy that I graduated Elementary School but sad that I will never get my days back of being a student in this school and seeing all the other great grade levels and supportive teachers around me helping students every where! We made a circle in the parking lot and moved towards the the back cafeteria door that leads outside to the side walk that starts there and circles around the whole building. Still driving we drove closer to the main entrance but before on the curb I said my last good byes to my librarian Mrs. G and Mrs. Bartels that does the technology fixing in the building. Driving past them with final good byes we drew closer to Mrs. Zetting the school music teacher! She was my favorite teacher she was so nice and caring I like all of the teachers but she stands out the most to me. Saying my last good byes to her I drove closer to Mr. Dave the gym teacher. I liked him he was such a nice teacher that thought his students through patience and support. He said “Come back and visit anytime Eureka!”, he said. “I will! Have a great summer!”, I replied back. Finally my art teacher Mrs. Wu arrived she was very funny and careful with her art work and does not hesitate to give advice. Then after my good byes to her we circled the edges of the parking lot and made a round to where all of the 5th grade teachers were standing, they were ringing bells and that’s when I saw Mrs. Lewcock my teacher! She is so nice and supportive and very intelligent too she was standing next to Mrs. Davis a very kind teacher too! I said bye to Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Lewcock, Mr. Marrienello, Mrs. Fatla and Mrs. Rosa one by one not wanting to leave. I liked Mrs. Fatla because of her sense of humor and the perseverance she has. I was very surprised that I didn’t cry because every year during the last day of school I cried but this year I was surprised because now my Swanson days were over so I was really surprised.

During my years in Swanson I will never forget all of the teachers that helped me, supported me and taught me with patience. I will also never forget all my good times like the Fun Run, Swanson Fest, D.A.R.E and others too. I am really grateful of what my teachers did this year because virtual learning was really hard at first but still all the teachers made sure that all of their students were comfortable and did what they can to make sure we feel that way too. I am also grateful for my Principal Kori Hartman and staff for making sure that we could still do the original Swanson traditions like Swanson Fest although it had to be virtual I still was really grateful for having it. I am also grateful for my 5th grade Recognition video thanks to the teachers they were able to make a video for our Recognition and Mrs. Zetting for putting together our Moving up song. Finally I want to thank my family and friends for helping me and supporting me and teaching me so I can be here at this point. I am very grateful and thankful for everyone’s support to me. We also received graduation shirts and our quote was “The world is a blank canvas, paint it!”. The whole grade voted. Thank you to all of my teachers, family and friends for supporting me throughout my life as an Elementary student and watched me grow not only physically but mentally too. I know that my Middle School journey will be hard but with the support from teachers, family and friends I am sure I will do just fine. I also know that my life is going to change too as I grow older but for now thank you to everyone who supported me through Elementary School and watched me grow. I remember being a 1st grader and starting Swanson and calling my teacher “mam” because I was so used to calling the teachers in Nepal “mam”. This will be my greatest memory ever in Swanson Elementary.