Proms from coast to coast
The Globe and Mail visited coming-of-age celebrations in five corners of the country
In Calgary, Syrian refugee Sara Al Aqal sat at a graduation banquet during Ramadan, two years after arriving in Canada. At the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba, Desirae Constant’s parents, brothers, uncles, aunts and cousins accompanied her to her grad supper at the local arena. And in Port Hope, Ont., dozens of teens arrived in vintage cars, an ATV and even a boat on a trailer to celebrate their final year of high school.
These are just some of the scenes that have played out over the last few weeks across the country, as high-school graduates – most of them 17 or 18 – celebrated the end of their adolescence and marked their first steps into adulthood.
“It’s kind of like a milestone of all the four years leading up to this very moment,” one said.
Some have only a few months before they go back to school, entering college or university programs. Others will work or take a year off.
The Globe and Mail visited this coming-of-age ritual – grad night to some, prom to others – and spoke with students about their thoughts and hopes for the night, and the future.
The days all started with preening and posing. Then came the evening of stunning gowns and suits. It was a celebration of achievements and it was an evening the Class of 2018 said they would always remember.
– Caroline AlphonsoIt’s kind of the last group gathering and occasion that you get to spend with the people you’ve spent the last three years of your life with. Kind of like the last moment that you might see some of these people ever again in your life. And, it’s just something you want to cherish, that you want to remember and you want to mean something.
The thing I’ll miss most is waking up every day and seeing the people that I enjoy spending time with – going there to be with my friends.
I’m going to St. F.X. [Nova Scotia’s St. Francis Xavier University] to pursue a bachelor of kinesiology and possibly take some business electives and just go from there. Maybe follow it with physiotherapy or something. It’s what I plan to do, but I might change it up. I’m not 100 per cent sure yet.
It’s kind of like a milestone of all the four years leading up to this very moment … I want to see everyone dressed up, so that’s really exciting, but mostly just spending time with my friends one last time, kind of before we all go off and graduate and do separate things.
I think I’ll actually miss the teachers the most. Because being in a small town and small school, your teachers really get to interact with you, and get to know you, so I’ve known all these teachers since Grade 9, some of them since Grade 7 or 8. The support you get from them is just insane. Like more than you’d get in a city or bigger school. I’ll miss them.
I accepted my offer to Queen’s in Kingston – arts program ... I want to be a web or graphic designer. Maybe self-employed if I get that far.
I don’t want to sound cliché, but I think it’s like the beginning of an end. All the hard work that you put in during the year, it’s kind of all paying off right now. But then after that, you’re not done – we all have goals, I guess you could say, or dreams, that we have to do after. And we incorporated our culture into the grad ceremony – we did a sort of round dance with the grads around the gym while the drum group sang.
The most I’m going to miss is probably the friends I made. Even though I was only here for one year, I made friends with everyone. [Desirae attended school in Saskatoon before enrolling in Oscar Lathlin for her Grade 12 year.] Well, I guess you can’t really say just friends since I’m related to most of them. But I didn’t know them before, so I’d call them friends.
I’m here [on Opaskwayak] for at least two years and I’m going to the University College of the North, then I’ll go off and do my own thing. I plan to go to the University of Saskatchewan, but I don’t know if I want to be a teacher or a veterinarian. I wanted to be a veterinarian my whole life, and just recently moving back home, I wasn’t really around my aunties before [who are on staff at the schools] and seeing them work hard for all these kids – to make sure they finish – even though they may be graduating late they still encourage them any way they can, and that kind of inspired me. So I thought of being a teacher as I was applying to UCN.
It’s a huge step for me. It’s a big step for me in preparing for my future. I prepared very carefully for this day.
My friends, my teachers. It was hard to make new friends at first, but they accepted me for who I am. We laughed together, cried together and supported each other. I will really miss my friends.
Because I came later, I have to do upgrading in English. I want to study medicine.
It means we can finally all stop panicking. It means we’re almost done. The race has been run. It’s almost finished. It’s obviously an exciting moment for everyone. I think we’re all pretty happy to be here.
Probably getting to see the people that I like every day. You build these relationships and then it’s all over pretty suddenly, so that’s probably going to be an adjustment.
Immediately after, I’m taking a gap year and travelling to Europe with my friend Callum. And then, after, I’ll go to university, something in the arts but I’m not entirely sure what or where yet.