We were the second of two high school graduations taking place back to back at the arena that evening. The graduations were scheduled so close together that just as all the students and family from Natalie's high school were arriving, the students and families from the other school were trying to leave, creating a perfect storm of traffic and pedestrians in the small, one way streets surrounding the event center.
Not knowing how long it would take to find a parking spot, Mark let Natalie and me off at the curb. I helped Natalie into her robe and, since she didn't have any pockets, she put her phone in my purse before heading off to the staging area. As soon as she was out of sight, I realized we had made a gross tactical error. To quote Mark, we had no "exit strategy". We had neglected to plan out how to find each other in a crowd of 5,000 people after the ceremony was over and, with her phone in my purse, we had no way of contacting Natalie. Oops.
Despite the stress of getting to the arena, when Pomp and Circumstance began to play and the students started marching in, the whole family got a little emotional. Students were entering from four different sides of the arena and we just happened to be seated right above the door where Natalie came in so we had a good view of her. I was surprised that even Brandon had a tear in his eye as we watched Natalie march to her seat. But, after that initial rush of emotion, it was a very long two hours before we finally got to see Natalie take her walk across the stage (you can see my blurry video of it here) and then at least another 30 minutes before it was all over. Add to that all the extra time we spent trying to find Natalie in the crowd in the dark after the ceremony (We will definitely have a better exit plan next time!) and we didn't make it home until close to 10:30pm. I'm glad that we were able to be there with Natalie for this milestone in her life, but I'm also glad to have 3 years before I have to sit through another one. 
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