The school year has just ended here in the Philippines, and I hope you noticed my recent flurry of blogging activity lately, as I am currently consuming my left over leaves before things get really busy again over the summer as we prepare for the next school year. There are a lot of huge changes, as we’re implementing the K-12 program (this is the last year we graduated our seniors at G10, or Grade 10. The next graduating class will be in 2018).
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No longer a baby. Lynn in her school’s 1920’s themed CVT |
I don’t know about you, but I absolutely dread the unavoidable fact that my kids are getting older, especially my daughters. I had mixed feelings when
my eldest daughter turned teen, and I felt the said mixed feelings again when
she went to her first prom as a G9 junior, which is the topic of this blog entry.
Can’t my girls just stay little girls? You can grow up later, you know, like when you turn 40! But kidding aside, there is a good side to an event that usually gives nightmares to first-time fathers (but, interestingly, not so much to the stage-mother moms).
For starters, I actually work at the school she goes to,
a great Montessori school in the Philippines with many campuses (the one I work in being the one in the Cagayan de Oro area). So needless to say, I’ve got my eye on her and everyone she’s around.
Secondly,
the school doesn’t follow the west’s model of prom. Good thing too, as I grew up in the States and, well, you know, things can get a little naughty during prom time. Trust me, I know. But
The Abba’s Orchard School (AOS for short)
keeps it at a very wholesome level (no “boy asking girl to prom,” no slow dances, among others), which this father here greatly appreciates.
In fact, we don’t have use the name, “prom.” We call our event the
CVT, or
Celebration of Valediction and Turnover. Other than our deviation from the western model in name,
the unique community-like structure of our school allows the ceremony to be different as well. Oh, and what a ceremony it was! Thanks to the juniors for the job well done (they organized this). Thanks also to
Limketkai Luxe Hotel for being a great venue for our event.