Woman in the Middle

Graduating is very expensive, especially if you want to actually participate in graduation. Youngest Daughter presented me with the options a couple of weeks ago. For approximately $258 she could get the cap, the gown, and the tassel as well as the special frame for her diploma. It is the one with the pretty green mat (school color) and it has the name of the school printed in gold. We spent good money on that piece of paper and I wanted to get her the nice frame for it as a graduation gift.

Or, in the “special graduation deal” she could get all of the above, plus a school alum t-shit and hoodie, all for $260. In other words, just $2 more.  So, for two dollars we decided to get the t-shirt and hoodie as well. What the heck. The price was already giving me heartburn, so what was $2 more?

Youngest also has to pay the school for the privilege of doing the paperwork for her graduation. You would think that would be included in the many thousands of dollars we paid them over the last five years, but, no. Even though the preferred result is that each student graduate, they still have to pay to actually graduate.

Then there are the graduation announcements. The “basic package” cost $94 for 25 announcements. But, dear friends, they come with return address labels and “custom envelope seals.” At almost $4 each, we decided to skip the “custom envelope seals”  and create our own announcements at the Shutterfly site. Worst case scenario they will cost us $2 each, and they will have adorable photos of Youngest on them.

Youngest has a friend at school who is handy with a camera. We paid him a small amount of money and he spent two hours taking photos of Youngest at various iconic places around the campus, including the rose garden, the horse stables (long story about why there are horse stables) and at the building that houses her major, among others. He did a very good job and we got some lovely photos.

Apparently Youngest’s school doesn’t like to let graduated students hang around on campus. While I understand their concern that a graduated senior might want to party or something, expecting them to be moved out the same day they graduate is a bit much, I think. Her deadline for moving is just one hour after her graduation ceremony starts.  In reality, she needs to be moved out and checked out, key turned in, place cleaned up, etc…before her graduation ceremony. So I think you know what we will be doing right before graduation!!! Hefting and toting! From a second story apartment with no elevator! In the heat!

Perhaps this is all designed to keep graduates and parents (especially moms) from getting too emotional about graduation. It is hard to get upset when you are swearing at the school for trying to squeeze a few more nickels out of you and sweating up a storm going up and down stairs. Yep, I bet that is why everything is so expensive and move out deadlines are so unreasonable. Right?