Creative Project

"Graduation (Friends Forever)"

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day
Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
And I keep thinking of that night in June
I didn't know much of love
But it came too soon
And there was me and you
And then we got real blue
Stay at home talking on the telephone
And we would get so excitedand we'd get so scared
Laughing at ourselves thinking life's not fair
And this is how it feels

[1]
As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together
And as our lives change
From whatever
We will still be
Friends Forever

So if we get the big jobs
And we make the big money
When we look back now
Will our jokes still be funny?
Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Still be trying to break every single rule
Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?
Can Heather find a job that won't interfere with her tan?
I keep, keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
And this is how it feels

[Repeat 1]

La, la, la, la:
Yeah, yeah, yeah
La, la, la, la:
We will still be friends forever

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now?
Can we survive it out there?
Can we make it somehow?
I guess I thought that this would never end
And suddenly it's like we're women and men
Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town
I keep, keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

At the time I did not realize how important this day was.  I remember the biggest problem of this day was that there was a power outage and I could not finish curling my hair.  I thought that that was the end of the world!  Just as Catherine Driscoll said in girls, “Fashion provides a range of already sanctioned codes for coherence and recognition to be cited by the girl in pursuit of identity” (p. 345).  I paid no attention to the countless people I proved wrong that I would actually graduate.  Earlier on in the year I remember my guidance counselor meeting me in her office and asking when I was planning on graduating.  I said, “June.”  She gave me a look and told me that was nearly impossible.  I had three full years of science to finish that semester, two years of history; I was on track with English and Math.  Needless to say that Senior Year was not going to be my typical Senior dumb, flakey girl.  At one point a month before graduation my friend looked at me and said, “I didn’t really think you were going to finish this year, I can’t believe you are leaving me here.”  I was always known for being a slacker, but I really wanted to graduate on time.  I had to prove everybody wrong.  I was in the same room for science class five hours a day and on Tuesday I was there for nine hours.  To “walk” at Minnetonka you had to be zero credits short.  Some other schools would let you walk if you were going to finish in the summer, but this was not the case for me.  I remember turning in my last science test.  I was in four different subjects with four different books and was taking tests like there was no tomorrow.  My teacher graded the test and I passed.  I was done with high school despite what everyone thought.  I went to two different high schools, so I got to have two graduations.  The one at the big public school I did not care about.  My last name starts with W, and there were hundreds of people that walked before me.  At my alternative school graduation, it was quite different.  The teachers gave out awards to the best student in each subject.  You could tell that my teacher was even surprised that he was saying this, but with a huge grin he says, “The best science student award goes to… Courtney Williams.”  You could tell that my teacher, myself, and the rest of the audience was quite surprised. 

When I was in 5^th Grade Vitamin C came out with the song “Graduation.”  I always joked about how I wanted that song to play at my graduation.  It’s an awful pop song, but it made me very happy.  After the awards were given out my teacher put together a slide show was presented and as they got to my slide The Vitamin C song started to play.  That’s when I knew I was really out of there and that I had of actually beaten all the odds.  As Driscoll explains in the introduction of girls this was the genealogy of girlhood, my map, my route of how I had made it to graduate on time.  “A genealogy is a history that does not look for causes and points of origin so much as a map how things and ideas are possible within a given context” (p. 3).