Sydney’s Graduation

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Last Friday was Sydney’s graduation from High School and we wanted to be there for her. Thursday evening Jeff & Tiffany drove us to the airport and we had an uneventful trip to the Dallas–Love airport. Brandon picked us up and it was after 1:00 am when we climbed into bed.

Friday morning was a nice, relaxed morning and then we headed out to Sydney’s graduation somewhere around 2:00. Other than the fact that Sydney was there, the best thing about the graduation is that it was in an air-conditioned auditorium. We were quite a way back so the pictures aren’t great, but we could see her clearly enough.

Funny story about Sydney, a couple of weeks ago she was told she was getting an award, but she wasn’t told what the award was. Her and Brandon went to the award ceremony and they kept announcing awards, but her name was still not called.

They always save the most distinguished awards until the end of the ceremony and finally she is awarded the Magna Cum Laude award. The funny part is that she had no idea what a Magna Cum Laude award is and no idea that she was getting one. She is a very smart girl.

For those who may not know, the Magna Cum Laude (Latin for “with Great Praise”) award is given to those who are the smartest in the school. Suma Cum Laude is for the kids with the highest GPA (kind of like a gold medal), Magna Cum Laude is the next highest (like a silver medal) and Cum Laude is lowest of the smartest (like a bronze medal).

Each school does it differently, some schools base it on percentage of the students (Magna Cum Laude would typically be the top 5 to 15% of students) and other schools base it on the GPA (Magna Cum Laude would be those with GPA’s ranging from 3.7 to 3.89).

I don’t know what Sydney’s school does but in either case, she is a smart girl.

We then went to a graduation party for Sydney at Serenes house. She had a lot of friends there. We gave her some BYU Idaho paraphernalia and then Lisa gave her a bracelet with a glass bead that contains some of her mother’s (GG’s) ashes. It was rather special.

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It is estimated that 25% of the people who are in a vegetative state

are fully concious and aware of their surroundings.

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