Madison's Graduation Theme: "The Death of a Dream Makes One Become A Devil"

A Sun Devil that is. An ASU Sun Devil. Arizona State University-Home to the Sun Devil. The biggest party school in the nation (too bad for them she does not party.) More on ASU below.

In the history of the Gilbert Public Schools, it has never RAINED on graduation...until 2008. Not only did it rain all day-the wind blew and it was COLD. The school scrambled to figure out what to do about graduation because the ceremony was suppose to be in the football stadium. The principal decided to bring the graduation inside the school. Unfortunately, with a graduating class of 676, there was no room for everyone to be in the same place. So the kids were in the auditorium and the families were scattered throughout the school watching the ceremony on a big projector screen. I watched my daughter graduate from High School while sitting on the floor in the gym. Here is the low-down from Graduation Day:

Madison's favorite restaurant-Gecko Grill

Family Pictures
Our lovely spot on the gym floor (I was thinking "un-freakin-believable")
Auditorium before the students entered
Students entering for graduation ceremonies
First speaker
Second speaker
Third speaker-Class Valedictorian
Principal
Choir
Ella getting bored and playing with lip gloss-676 names are a lot to get through
Somewhere in the next few pictures there is a black blob...that is Madison getting her diploma



Our Graduate
Ella wondering what that "funny hat" was

Aunt Trisha and Aunt Cherise
Grandma and Grandpa
Best friend - Hannah



All in all graduation ended up being OK. The students loved the fact that they had the whole auditorium to themselves...just them to celebrate what they had accomplished.

Madison will start at ASU in the Fall, but not after letting go of a dream that she has had since 9th grade. ASU was the LAST place Madison wanted to go to school, but she applied there anyway as her back-up school. She was accepted into one of the nation's most prestigious Journalism School...the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in the Broadcast Journalism division. Out of 1100 students that applied to the program only 275 were accepted. Based on her GPA, ACT score and class ranking, she was also awarded a full scholarship for tuition and books. Madison has always dreamed of going to BYU and majoring in Musical Theatre-a passion of hers. She has decided to take a different road-the one she thought she would never travel and give up her dream of attending BYU. She has slowly come to terms with the fact that she could not pass up this opportunity at ASU. This Fall, The Cronkite Journalism School is opening up a new facility in downtown Phoenix that was partly funded by CBS. This school is as high tech as one can imagine and the opportunities are endless. She will be in the nation's 5th largest media outlet learning from the best in the field. A CNN anchor left his job to come teach at this new school. As she will have to say goodbye to friends that are leaving and put her "Broadway" dreams on hold-we know that she will be successful going down this path in life. But, as parents who spent a lot of money for voice lessons, we are hoping she can find a job SINGING the evening news =).