Senior Week: Awards Night, Baccalaureate Mass and A High School Graduation

What a week!  We have another high school graduate in the Martin family...

3 down and 4 to go :)

Monday night was Senior Awards and Eamon certainly took home a lot, as he should for all of his hard work academically, dedication to service, and being one of those kids that kind of flew under the radar but was also well loved and respected by his peers and the faculty and staff.  

The high school gives out two big awards each year - The President's Award and the Spartan Award - and Eamon won the Spartan Award!  His name will now be on a plaque at the high school forever.

Tommy and Eamon, classmates and cousins!

Eamon has also received $6700 from five outside scholarships that he applied for (with some not so gentle nudging and nagging from his mother).  Worth it.

On Wednesday evening we went to his Baccalaureate Mass, which was beautiful...

Though I don't know why the disciples look very mad/sad?

Thursday night was the Graduation Ceremony, and thanks to Phil's role as a high school teacher, we got some good seats in the front row.  Not all of us could make it since someone had to scoop, and my mom's back wouldn't allow my parents to attend either (she's better now, and they live-streamed it from home) but we shared the row with my sister's family, who also had a son graduating.  

The speeches were all great, the commencement speaker was an alumni who  became a Doctor of Physical Therapy and had wonderful memories to share from her time in high school, even giving Mr. Martin a shout out for being her theology teacher.  As my mom said "it was the most Catholic high school graduation I have ever seen".

When it was Eamon's turn to receive his diploma, Phil went up on stage to congratulate him *teacher perk* and it was a beautiful moment to see Eamon go in for a hug from his dad.  The students around us all said "Awwwww" :)

Cousins

We came home to the most delicious Italian restaurant catering for dinner with some family and friends and celebrated all of Eamon's accomplishments over the last four years!

As an aside, but noteworthy for the blog book, Eamon was not in the Top Ten (which is a highly publicized honor, sent to newspapers, on social media, etc) but we knew he must have been close due to his grades.  After graduation, Phil asked his colleague who is in charge of the students' ranking, what class rank Eamon was.  She told him that the Top Ten is calculated at the end of 3rd Quarter, but by the end of 4th Quarter, Eamon had actually moved up to being number 9.  Which means he jumped at least two spots in one quarter.  That was pretty annoying to find out, but what can you do?  Eamon is a humble kid who didn't seem to mind, and I'm going to try and follow his lead but my Irish temper and desire for justice has to burn for a little first.  He's Top Ten on my list for sure!

Off to Franciscan University in the fall, but we still get a whole summer with him, thank God!

And just for funsies, here he is graduating Kindergarten, 8th Grade, and High School :)