Interstate Adventures

As I stood awkwardly alone at my niece’s graduation, everyone around me was greeting each other by name and excited about the beginning of summer. I felt like an outsider from Massachusetts, a stranger with “white plates.” Then someone came up to me and asked “Are you the one staying in the van in the driveway down the road?” I was grateful for conversation and also grateful for the van that draws people in.

I was in Vermont because my sister and I had a long overdue sister getaway. We tried to think of where we could go for a 24-hour adventure. We had to be home for her daughter’s graduation. We were too far from any major city—or so I thought. Then she reminded me they live just under two hours from Montreal. What a treat to be in beautiful rural Vermont one minute and then speaking French again the next.

Even with a stop at Atwater Market for baguettes and cheese to bring home, we made it back in plenty of time for the graduation. I learned that only twenty students were saying goodbye to The Warren School and hello to Harwood Middle and High School. Most of them were together since pre-kindergarten.

Each of them shared a short video about who they are, who they will miss, and where they see themselves in the future. I thought back to my children’s clap out on the last day of elementary school. The parents lined the 5th grade hallway and we clapped each one of them out of the building. They were all smiles and it took a little while before all eighty or so students walked through. We would never have been able to have the family-like gathering and such personal presentations.

After the ceremony there was a reception with cookies and cupcakes and kids running all around. My sister was all over the place chatting with parents and teachers about the next event when they will see each other, which was the Fourth of July. It felt more like a large family gathering at a rented hall than the kind of school events I have been to when my children were this age.

As I explained why I was in Vermont to the people who lived down the road from my sister, I also mentioned I was returning to Warren with my family for the Fourth of July. They said, “See you then.” I still had white plates, but I felt welcome.