My oldest child is graduating from high school in a few weeks. I don’t yet know all the emotions that will come over me, but I’ve started to feel some of them as I prepare for the event. Technology is playing a role in how I prepare for the event. But it’s just an enabler of sorts for a few things. The real event will be based on relationships, sharing experiences with others, and ceremonies.
The graduation letter
One tradition during the last week leading up to graduation is the presentation of a letter to the graduate. We sent invitations to family members and friends who would thought might like to leave a letter for her. The letter can be about anything, including advice, memories, congratulations, and well wishes.
I used Google docs to draft my letter. In part because it gave me an editor to draft, read, make adjustments, etc. But it’s also easy to share the letter with my wife through the Google share feature. We’ve started using Google docs for other documents that we want to share and edit together. I like the flow and portability of the feature and then we can access the document no matter which device we are using. For my daughter’s letter, this is just a staging area. The final copy I’ll ink by hand to give it more of a personal feel. Technology has a it’s place but for this occasion, I want the note to feel more crafted and created.
The memory deck
Graduation wouldn’t be complete without a slide show recapping her life! I plan to use this during her celebration party with friends and family. I haven’t finalized the layout or presentation just yet, but I’ve picked the technology tool. It’s Picasa because I use Picasa to manage our digital photo and video library locally. Then I sync to cloud for backup storage.
I’m already learning that the joy in this exercise is looking through years of photos and remembering the events where they were taken. Isn’t it wonderful that digital media is so readily available in our lives? I hope it will have an impact on my daughter when she sees it. She’s been blessed and has much to be thankful for in life.
Onward
Onward to the next steps and phases of life. Long live technology. Long live daughters.