Pomp, Circumstance and, CDs.

My middle child is graduated.  The ceremony was brief, the weather was lovely, and my midwestern sensibilities were offended.  While I was so excited for my kiddo to graduate, remembering the pomp and circumstance of my own graduation and then the same for my firstborn's graduation, the Florida graduation we sat through... 

When I graduated, there were not quite 400 in our graduating class. My firstborn, there were over 1400 (huge high school!), and now my middle child - around 300?  It was obvious who used chatgpt for their speeches and who didn't.  I found it odd that there was no specific valedictorian or salutatorian. And, while there were the random air horns being blown and the standard clapping, hooting and hollering from the crowd, what offended me was the fact that there were several people that left as soon as their childs name was called and they crossed the stage.  

In my mind, and the way that I was raised how it was supposed to be, is that the students make their way to the front where their seats are while the band plays Pomp and Circumstance.  Graduation ceremony, toss the caps, and then the students walk out to Pomp and Circumstance.  That wasn't the case.  The kids threw their caps in the air, the alma mater song played and then everyone went their own way.  There was no specific exit, it drove my brain a little nuts, and my midwestern sensibilities around ceremony were triggered.  While Kacy and I laughed about it on the way back to the car, we were also kind of offended for the class of 2026.  There is very little that kids get to celebrate anymore and with the economy currently going to shit and belts being tightened, I think the least we can do for these kids is celebrate them proper and give them the respect that they definitely won't see in the workplace going forward.  Having even attended the graduation at the community college in Madisonville a couple of years ago (the last one my Dad wielded the college mace at), there was more of an air of significance than the graduation that I just witnessed.  The more I think about it, the more upset I get, which makes me feel silly and like an old person shaking their fist saying "Back in my day..." 

Am I really turning into that person?  I wonder what my kids' "back in my day" thing will be?  

I had to laugh and cry a little the other day.  On the last day of school, my son and his friend climbed into the back of the car and his friend was like "Check it out! I got a really cool CD from one of my teachers!" And he proceeded to pull out a vinyl record.  My son was instantly like "No, dude, just no.  That's not a CD."  I glanced in the rear view mirror and looked at his friend holding up the record.  "Oh, honey, that is in no way shape or form a CD.  A CD," I explained, "is much smaller and typically silver in color and can fit into the slot right here on my dashboard.  That is a record."  I unfortunately had no CDs in the car to show him and contemplated stopping at home to grab one to show him.  

I haven't told his mother, yet.  I think she would be just as horrified as I was.  And also laugh probably as hard as I did.  

At least my son knew what it was.  I have a couple of vinyl records, but no record player.  I got rid of that when I sold my Dad's house.  Nostalgia would have loved for me to keep his record player and the handful of records he had, but the audiophile in me prefers the lossless codec that I can listen to on my computer (or on CDs in the car should I ever carry any around).  If I'm being honest, though, if I'm listening to anything these days, I'm streaming it on spotify.  While I hate all the subscription services that are pretty much required for any type of entertainment these days, I will probably always subscribe to Spotify.  I have my playlists, it has most of the music that I have listened to over the course of my life, and I can generally find what I want to listen to, even if it's something completely obscure from the 1960s or 70s like Herp Albert and the Tiajuana Brass Band (LONELY BULL!!! YEAH!!!).  AND through spotify I can discover new artists without having to and buy a CD, even though I really enjoyed doing that in my much younger years.  

Yep, I've entered into my "kids today have no idea how good they got it" era.  Although, they deal with bigger problems than we ever did.  Thankfully, mine have pretty good heads on their shoulders.  Sure, they have their moments where it's like "what were you thinking?!" What kid doesn't have that moment? Hell, I still have them at 47.  BUT I'm not as worried about them as my parents probably were about me.  I know that my wife and I have done a pretty good job at raising them.  We just gotta hope that we've given them the skills necessary for existing in this crazy ass world.