Now we find ourselves in another season—this time, one of completions and closings, of promotions and commencements. Graduation season is upon us, and I will graciously spare you the tried and true reflections and dictionary definitions from the graduation lexicon. When we look to our Eighth Grade promotion and Twelfth Grade commencement ceremonies, we find how these rites of passage serve as threshold moments when the true meaning of each student’s Waldorf education only begins an unfolding process that will take an entire lifetime to complete.

The names of these ceremonies are more intentionally chosen than they may initially appear. While to the sensitive and perhaps prickly ears of an educator, “promotion” might carry a commercial connotation of a hollow kind of marketing or the suggestion that students are receiving a workplace attaboy with a raise and fancy new title—admittedly, “High Schooler” does carry an allure in this phase—we do want to share with the world who are students are becoming. We are engaging in a promotional campaign in this rite. How could we not be excited to share and help bring them out into the world? The Eighth Grade is rounding out their Lower School journey and is summiting a significant phase of their development. As we celebrate this milestone with them, the excitement for and utter potentiality of their next steps call to us to lift our voices and sing out who these young people have become. The promotion ceremony is a chorus the community sings to send the class off on their High School journey with all they’ve gathered over the years.

We are so proud of you, Eighth Grade, and we can’t wait to see how you will continue to grow and transform throughout High School into who you are meant to be.

“Commencement”—as you have no doubt heard and will likely hear again this graduation season—is more of a beginning, a setting out, and an opening. The Twelfth Grade ceremony is a gorgeously liminal threshold moment where these young adults are no longer High School students, nor are they yet alums of the school. Each student’s graduation remarks highlight their individuality and the love they’ve grown for each other, their teachers, and this community. These speeches are truly the heart of the commencement ceremony. Each student is beginning their individual journey into young adulthood, setting out with support and love but, for the first time, without us.

Preceding this ceremony—and inextricably part of it—are two additional ceremonies. The Senior Walkthrough is a beloved day with many bittersweet tears when the Seniors visit each class in the school, Kindergarten through Eleventh, to receive songs, poems, and flowers to build a metaphorical bouquet of memories to carry in their final days as students. The other event is a meeting each Twelfth Grade has with the College of Teachers, which takes place in an encounter held by some genius symbolism. The students, fresh from their final class trip together where they speak from their hearts all they appreciate in each other, arrive to a circle of chairs. One arc of the circle is made up of the College; to complete the circle, each student takes a seat to become an equal adult member of our SWS community as alums. The class then reflects on their school journey and, in the end, is gifted a verse that has been given to each graduating class since the very first Twelfth Grade graduated from the very first Waldorf school. I’ll only paraphrase a key image from that verse—some mysteries must be maintained, after all. We send these young people off on their journeys carrying with them all they’ve received in their education imprinted in their hearts. This is an indelible mark they can come back to for guidance and solace in life’s questions and tempests. It is a font of heart-warmed memories which will unfold for them throughout their lives. There is always love and a home for them here, and they carry this love out into the world.

These ceremonies are moments for each student to begin to realize what their Waldorf education means. That meaning is deeply personal and individual and sometimes only surfaces after years of living life elsewhere. That this clarity and feeling only really begins to come about at the end of or even long after the journey is curious indeed.

We love you all so deeply, you who are promoted, you who are commencing with life’s great story. The meaning of what you have experienced and received begins to emerge once you leave where you are and head out towards where you will be. Remember that you carry with you all this love and all you have received here, imprinted in your heart like a seal of true humanity.