Graduation Girls

Thursday, June 5, 2008, by Leigh Anne

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Fourteen years ago when we moved into our current house the first person we met in our new neighborhood was three year old Hannah. We met her as she was riding her bike with training wheels out in our cul de sac. With a pacifier in her mouth she introduced her self as “Hannah Banana.”

My three year old daughter Cali and Hannah became fast friends and soon were inseperable. They did everything together!

They played for hours together…

They celebrated holidays together…Halloween, Easter, Christmas ……

They started the first day of Kindergarten and every other first day of school for the next 12 years together…..

They lost teeth together….

They made music together….

and they competed together….

They vacationed together…

and then the scary day when they even learned to drive together…..

This past weekend they graduated from high school together….

…and we celebrated their success and achievement with a joint graduation party. The highlight of the party was a special DVD my sweet friend Lorri put together for us. It was a compilation of the many, many photographs we have of Cali and Hannah together over the years. Accompanied by music we watched these two beautiful girls grow up before our eyes. As neighbors, friends and family watched there were many tears!

Tears of happiness, tears of gratitude for the opportunity we have had to watch these two sweet girls grow into such beautiful young woman and tears of sadness that the time went so quickly.

Both girls are ready to start a new journey and adventure in their life as they leave for college in the fall. Hannah is off to Oregon State and Cali to Brigham Young University in Utah. Although they will be miles apart they will also be connected, their lives have been changed because they have known each other - changed for good.

I chose the song “For Good” from Wicked to accompany the pictures on the DVD because I love the message of that song. Here are the words….

‘I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason

bringing something we must learn

and we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them

and we help them in return

now I don’t know if I believe that that is true

but I know I’m who I am today because I knew you…

like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun,

like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood…

who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

But because I knew you I have been changed for good.

It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime