If March madness is about basketball, then May madness is about graduations. I personally love graduations. In today’s age it seems like all ages get to celebrate it. Last night I got to celebrate our 8th graders graduation with a good ol fasion game of bowling in our downtown bowling alley. You may be wondering why I put the # 262 in the title of this post. Believe it or not (but I have proof), I bowled a 262! I had 9 strikes in a row! I was a bowler in high school, but I don’t ever recall having that many strikes in a row and I believe also it’s my highest game yet. I had all 40+ middle schooler chanting my name as I was bowling the 10th frame; Now I know how an athlete gets a surge of energy when people cheer. I released the ball with more umpth than I needed to and only knocked down 6 and didn’t pick up the spare.

Ok, enough about me (heart still trying to calm down - JJ but not really), let’s talk graduation parties.

Here are my reasons why not only do I like graduation parties, but why as a youth worker you should attend them.

1. Most are all ready planned so you don’t have to. I do realize that I planned for our bowling night and we have planned for a senior banquet later this month, however, most graduation parties have already been planned by families which is nice. Just imagine if we as youth workers tried to plan each kid’s graduation parties - yikes!
2. You get to meet so many people. I love going to graduation parties to see how family and friends are connected to the student that is graduating. What a great way to make connections with people; I often my self introducing who I am and it always strikes up great conversations.
3. FREE Food. Where else can a youth worker gain a quick 20+lbs before burning it off in the summer;) Although the food is often snacky, when you do 5 or more grad parties in a day this equates to a great meal - you know what I’m talkin about.
4. You get to leave a spiritual reminder. What do I mean? Well usually at these parties there is a guest book to sign or a picture or a card. While signing these things I like to write more than just my name. I want to write a scripture verse or memory that I have of the student. Many family and friends will look at this; plus these are usually things that you open back up 10 years later when you have a bit of belly and maybe two kids. It’s a keeper thing and will always be a reminder to the student.

There’s most likely more reasons which I hope you share, but that’s all that comes to my mind as of now. So if you haven’t yet made plans, go take a group of graduating somethings to a bowling alley near you and try and beat my score! Ok bad ending. How about this: Go to those graduation parties to be that spiritual reminder to students as they transition into independent adults (weird but true).