It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times.

My youngest daughter is graduating from high school. It's a great day in our household. Not only is she graduating, but she's graduating with honors, received a scholarship to UC and an outstanding student award. I'm so proud!

It's not been an easy road. If any of us look back on our own teens years, we can agree it was never easy. There were times when we thought we knew EVERYTHING. We acted without thinking of the consequences. However, the consequences were far less severe than today.

In this world of ZERO-TOLERANCE, who in the world thought of this pertaining to CHILDREN!, the CONSEQUENCES can be SEVERE and oftentimes the PUNISHMENT DOES NOT FIT THE CRIME. But it is what it is. Unfortunately.

So today's average, normal teens can't get by with too much at all. Everyone is held to a higher standard. And I don't have a problem with it, but has it solved anything? Look in the paper, check out the news cast. Has Zero Tolerance been a deterrant? I think not, in fact, it seems that crime is up everywhere.

Here's a very sad social commentary - a senior in high school living in a very affluent neighborhood was murdered yesterday by his (2 year) younger brother. Right after it happened the media was on his street interviewing neighbors. One neighbor was so blase and said something like this: well, crime happens everywhere, it's no respector of neighborhoods. IT'S SAD BUT TRUE!!

So, here I am with my baby graduating from high school. She had some ups and downs over the years, didn't always choose the best of friends, had a lapse of judgement from time to time, dated the wrong guy at least once, enjoyed being the drama queen on occasion and through it all, she was on the honor roll, she listened to me (most of the time), was rarely grounded, never in trouble with the police, made me proud everytime she turned around, but MOST IMPORTANTLY - SHE LEARNED HER LESSONS AND DIDN'T REPEAT THEM!!

GOD I LOVE THAT GIRL!! She's a wonderful young woman, a woman after my own heart but even better. She would prefer to not date than to date the wrong guy, she's a hard worker, she's a dedicated friend, she's reliable, she's just downright GREAT!!!

Thanks for being such a great daughter, but more importantly, thanks for turning out to be such a FANTASTIC human being! If we had more like her, the world would be a better, more fun place to live :)

I LOVE YOU!!