Today was the last day of school here in Framingham.

I told you about the high school graduation a couple of weeks ago.

My youngest daughter had her moving up ceremony on Wednesday - she’s out of middle school and on to high school.

This post isn’t about that ceremony - but it is about what that ceremony represents:

After seven long years, I’ll never have to deal with middle school pickup again.

This was something I had in my sights for a while - I was looking forward to this all year.

It became a little anticlimactic, though, because once I started working outside the house again in March, my pickup responsibilities quickly dwindled. (The older driving sisters helped pick up the slack…in addition to more walking home and Kathy with the occasional pickup.)

Still, it’s pretty significant.

It did not take long, when my oldest daughter began sixth grade, for me to realize, “Oh, middle school pickup is a nightmare.”

It only got worse each year.

People drive too fast through the parking lot. People pull in front of cars that are parked in parking spaces and block them in rather than park in a parking spot. People pull out of parking spots too aggressively.

It’s a parade of selfish parents who think their time is more valuable than everyone else’s and they need to get out before the buses at all costs, niceties be damned.

I’ve been at the high school at pickup time and have seen that it’s not much better there…but the girls usually take the bus home from there and now can even drive (if we can secure a parking spot).

In middle and elementary school, they didn’t take the bus. Elementary school was a pleasure for pickup - the cars were spread out enough in different areas when I took the car, and often I could walk the girls to and from.

At the middle school, though, too many cars pack into a poorly laid out parking lot, and for seven years I have dreaded 2:15 until 2:30…and possibly later if we get stuck behind the buses.

But I’m happy to now say I’ve graduated from middle school pickup.