What No One Tells You About Graduation Day

I looked out at the stadium — hundreds, if not thousands, of people packed in with balloons, flowers, and a buzz of collective pride — and I saw something I had never noticed before. I worked at a school with a large population of immigrant families, and for many, this was the first person in their family to graduate high school, the first to prepare to attend college. I had always seen the joy. That day, I saw the grief woven inside it.