Dickson: For the parents of the class of 2023 graduates

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I’ve seen so many pictures like this one on my social media feeds in the last couple of weeks. Proud parents standing next to grinning graduates. Last night, I heard the joyful sounds of that right of passage ceremony as my son Ethan stepped through the door to adulthood.

He looked so grown up as he walked across the stage. I hooted and hollered so loudly, I didn’t hear them say his name.

The Class of 2023

When Ethan and the final graduates with names at the end of the alphabet returned to their seats, the principal called for the Class of 2023 to stand, turn around, and “applaud the people who got you there.”

My mind flashed back to lying next to 7-year-old Ethan in his bed shaped like a Lightning McQueen car, reading him Captain Underpants books. I remembered the stern talk we had driving home from 7th grade near the end of the school year when I told him I was throwing his Xbox in the garbage if he didn’t bring his grades up.

The tears started to come sometime between that thought and the gratitude I felt swelling up in me when I remembered that he switched to this school to be with his little brother. He left his friends and the school he knew to support Aiden, my youngest son.

I glanced at Aiden. He was clapping, too. His face beaming.

We stood together as a family, clapping for the gentle giant who is my son, Ethan.

To all the graduates

Be patient with your parents. We are occasionally overcome with the thought that the little boy or girl who was our whole world is now a grown young man or woman… and still our whole world.

Amanda Dickson is the co-host of Utah’s Morning News and A Woman’s View.

Follow @amandadickson