"Let me know" is a column for our readers' stories. We launch a survey every week and are waiting for your comments. Last week, we suggested remembering how your graduation went. We publish stories.
A year before my graduation, I was at an older guys' party. As soon as everyone, beautiful and elegant, gathered in the assembly hall and the ceremonial part began, chaos reigned on the street. The hurricane knocked down trees and severed wires. The lights went out in the whole area.
At first, the graduates and their parents waited for the bad weather to subside and the Ministry of Emergency Situations to fix everything. But time passed… A few hours later, the director found candles somewhere. The presentation of certificates was very romantic. But not very joyful. The girls were upset: no one saw any makeup or hairstyles. And I had to take off my high-heeled shoes so as not to kill myself on the steps.
They didn't wait for the banquet either. They began to get everything they had in store right in the assembly hall. Of course, no one was allowed out of school — there was a disaster on the street. That's how they celebrated almost until morning.
I wore high-heeled shoes for the first time at graduation. It was very hot. The lineup took place in a large school yard. We, the gold medalists, were first forced to do a lap of honor around the courtyard, and then told to stand in a row to listen to the parting words from the teachers. They used to talk about‑for a very long time!
What was happening was like torture: the sun, I'm on high heels… When it was over, I was led to the side, and I started to faint! As a result, while my family was trying to bring me back to normal, the class left to take pictures, and I couldn't get to the general pictures.
On my graduation day, I planned to have fun and look forward to the new cool life that I will soon begin. At that moment, I was dating a guy from a parallel class. We wanted to go to study in the same city or even to the same university.
Closer to two o'clock in the morning, when the official program ended, a disco was announced. I tried to find my boyfriend with my eyes so that we could dance a slow dance, but he was nowhere to be found. A friend said that he seemed to have gone to the schoolyard. There was a secret place for smokers, and I was sure he had gone to smoke.
And yes, he was there. However, not alone, but with his classmate, an ex-girlfriend. They were kissing. At first I froze in my tracks, and then I burst into tears.
The rest of the evening is a blur. Tears, showdowns, apologies: "I just made a mistake, memories came flooding back, we won't see her again," and all that sort of stuff.
I left the prom before everyone else. I asked my parents to pick me up. I didn't want to talk to anyone. But it seems that my friends told my mother everything, and she didn't bother me with questions. I just brought it home and gave it tea. And then we met the dawn on the balcony. And that was probably the best part of graduation.
My graduation was in 1994. I remember well the moment when my main school rival came up to me and said that she really respected me very much, and apologized for provoking clashes.
She and I really had a difficult relationship. We were both athletes and excellent students. Both were constantly fighting for the attention of classmates. And they both fell in love with the same guy. But eventually he started dating me.
This girl—let's call her Lisa—was so angry that she sent him an email. It said that she could not live without him, and "in general, why would he need this narrow-eyed one" (the heroine has an Asian appearance. — Editor's note).
When Lisa apologized, a tear was running down her cheek. It was so unexpected and touching that I burst into tears too. And so we stood in the school bathroom for half an hour, apologizing for all the nasty things we had done. Lisa opened up to me in a new way, and then for a while we even maintained a friendship.
My graduation was in 2000. Then, in the middle of a hot June day, not just rain was suddenly transmitted in the city, but a storm warning. And trips to the sea were canceled in all schools — the traditional dawn meetings by the water were closed.
Therefore, we were locked in a stuffy building without an assembly hall — it was replaced by a corridor on the second floor. The boys climbed out to breathe on the visor of the emergency exit. The girls didn't take any chances: they were all wearing heels, and it was raining outside.
In short, the only entertainment was an incredibly sour dry wine, bought by the parent committee on the cheap. And also the realization that the headmistress drinks and praises the "cognac" created with love for moonshine by the grandfather of a classmate.
I graduated from high school in 2017. Then the whole summer was terribly cold — in June the temperature was about 15 °C.
I think I would have won the competition for the most boring prom. We celebrated at school. Without a hint of alcohol. Almost no one danced because the music was so-so. No one knew what to do with themselves.
The only funny thing was a cringe presenter who confused a school holiday with a wedding and held vulgar contests. I was disappointed.
