Sharing Thanks for Graduation and moving forward!

Liz on her graduation day from W.T Clarke High School

Most of the time I share thanks about the little small joys of life. Today I'm going to share thanks for a milestone! Sunday was a beautiful sunny breezy day to graduate on the football field. It was a joyful day as I watched my daughter Liz walk up to receive her high school diploma. The moment was special for her, in the distance I saw her wipe away a tear as she walked back to her seat on the football field. Congratulations to all the graduates of the class of 2013! You are our future and have the power to change and shape our world for goodness. Here is what I was thankful for on Sunday!

1. Thanks to all the teachers and therapists who have helped Liz over the years! Liz is deaf and uses a cochlear implant to hear. She received her implant at age 4 from Dr. Parisier who started the amazing Children's Hearing Institude! I also owe thanks to Dr. Roland from the NYU coclear implant center who did a revision after she had a soft failure and had extreme headnoise for 6 months when she was in middle school. Liz has overcome many obstacles in her life and is poised to live her dreams now that she has completed high school. Liz learned to speak thanks to the BOCES hearing impaired program. She went from being in a deaf kindergarten class to being in a mainstream class. Although mainstreaming is not easy, she has gotten a good education and has been able to read the classics. Liz's favorite book is "Too Kill a Mockingbird" because she looks up to people who fight injustice in the world. It is not easy being different in high school, and I am proud of Liz for finishing high school when she felt at times to be socially isolated. Liz was a victim of cyberbullying and recently helped a classmate by acting in a public service announcement she made for a senior project to stop bullying.
2. Thanks to everyone who helped inspire Liz to be a creative person! She is going to Columbia College in the fall to study film making! Liz started her love of acting at age 6 when she was part of the No Limits Theater Group directed by Michelle Christie. Liz performed in 7 of No Limits productions of the years, many which were at the Long Island Children's Museum on Long Island thanks to Jim Packard. Thanks to Steve Germano who directed many of the No Limits shows on Long Island with great enthusiasm! This program gave Liz the love of acting and helped her do tongue twisters which gave her excellent speech! Liz joined the drama club at the Woodland Middle school and was a chorus member in "Your a Good Man Charlie Brown"  Thanks to Mr. March and Mr. Holtzman at the Woodland middle school who gave Liz the opportunity of a lifetime to play Ms. Hannigan in the musical Annie. Liz is a great character actress and really relished playing this part. Music is tough for Liz as good as the cochlear implant is, she can not tell the difference between musical pitches. Liz decided to try her hands at film acting at SOCAPA summer program in Vermont. Liz learned how to do monologues and enjoyed acting in the student films. In 10th grade Liz attended a film making workshop at Five Towns College and used her writing abilities and made 2 movies. "Written Love" was her first film, and tells a romantic love story! She took more film acting classes at JRP Long Island and was chosen to go to IPOP last summer. She was signed by The Crawford Talent agency, and enjoys making audition dvds which she sends to casting agents. Her dreams include getting her first paid acting job and working in the film industry as a screenwriter, cinematographer, or director. She is very excited about attending Columbia College in the fall!
3. Thanks to my parents who clapped proudly at Liz's graduation. My dad bought Liz the beautiful red roses. We enjoyed lunching together afterwards at Bertuccis. My mom made Liz a beautiful quilt of many colors to take to Columbia!
4. Thanks to my husband Spencer, who has always been generous in supporting Liz's creative efforts, tutors, extra speech therapy, what ever was needed to help her succeed and be happy in life. I also want to thank my older daughter Becky who was Liz's first speech teacher. She wrote a lovely card to Liz for me to give her since she is London now! I also want to thank my good friends, the Geras, who came to watch Liz graduate. I also want to thank my good friends Stella, Liz, Margaret, and Susan. My friends have been a huge support to us. I also want to congratulate Jeff, Stella's son who also graduated high school today. He is a talented percussionist and will be attending the Mannes school of music in the fall! I'm so proud of you! Congratulations also to my nephew David who is graduating from ICP!

I want to thank everyone who has been sharing what they are thankful for in the comments. Your comments always inspire me. Share something your thankful for today!