Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  It doesn’t seem like a long journey, maybe a couple of miles or so, but the transition from Nederland Elementary School fifth grade to Nederland Middle School is a trek from childhood to adolescence, to a different building, different teachers and other students who are older and somewhat wiser.

Last Wednesday, 47 fifth graders celebrated their send off to sixth grade at the middle school. Most of them will be moving on together and many of them have siblings at NMSHS to help them through the newness. Leadership crews made up NMS students are there to give directions and comfort to sixth graders who need a hand.

It will be a challenge at first but this bunch of fifth graders are up to it: they are confident, funny, caring and talented. They are exuberant about each day, including the ones they anticipate.

The ceremony took place in the gymnasium where family members sat, armed with phone cameras and Kleenex, wanting to capture the moment, feeling the rapid passing of time.

The ceremony began with Christine Mallery directing the fifth grade Band playing “O’ Watch the Stars.” When they finished NES principal Laurel Reichert said, “It is amazing how these students work together in band, their concentration, their coordination. You have accomplished much. All of you shine in different ways and it is wonderful how you’ve grown. These fifth graders are to be sent off. You rock. middle school is a great time to explore, so try something.”

Students from both Tammy Forrest and Brenda Theodorakis’s classes were then given the opportunity to read from their writings about their fifth grade memories as well as their “I am” poems and their thank yous.

They reminisced about their best friends, times they got in trouble for giggling at Uranus jokes in the planetarium or chucking their green cheese when they were supposed to eat it. They thanked their parents and siblings; they expressed a desire to be friends with everybody. They described themselves as kind-hearted and loyal, as athletic dreamers. One of them said he understood the purpose of water. One says he makes an effort to remember all his stuff when he goes places.

Each student received a certificate declaring them ready and able to continue on to middle school, willing or not.

The entire fifth grade then sang their farewell song “Hall of Fame” and waved their certificates in the air, before they exited the stage to join their parents and have some cake.

Tammy Forrest’s class: Lino Bareta, Michael De Pinto-Jones, Maeve Dufton, Emily Geels, Savannah Hill, Dean Howell, Payton Kutscher, Annabella Lamb, Margaret Lear, Brian Baratta, Wylde Monroe, Brennan Oliver, Jade Patterson, Emma Pilarcik, Gray Schlosser, Cedar Shupe, Grayson Shurr, Jesse Siegal-Gane, Koa Siglin, Leif Svensallen, Jolie Runer, Cassidy Williams and Kendall Zotti.

Brenda Theodorakis’s class included: Jayden Abookire, Mateo Beauvineau, Amelie Bodnar, Aidan Buchman, Henry Dufton, Gideon Emery, Natalia Garcia, Jacob Geels, Maddox Gioia, Jasmyn Hickman, Kaylyn Holmes, Morgan Lake, Davyn Meade, Autumn Pattridge, Aya Donahue, Keahi Donahue, Sahara Sandberg, Lauren Schrader, Breanna Stephenson, Grizzly Struck, Shaiann Stover-Winter, Eric Thurston, Laila Waldron and Elijah Weiner.

(Originally published in the May 31, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)