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May 29, 2014

May, Graduations and Book Releases


By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine


May is poetically known for the explosion of Spring flowers. On the other hand, parents discover, as their children grow through their various levels of achievement, that May is the busiest month of the school year. Every Spring sports team has their trophy-giving banquets. Field days abound. School clubs and honors programs have their initiations. Band, choir and theatre groups have their spring productions. Grade level bus trips occur all over the United States. These various activities are all important rites of passage which can enrich your child's expanse of their world. All in preparation for graduation. 

As a parent, I've attended my children's graduation milestones and enjoyed watching their growth with each graduation. If you had a graduate this May, congrats to your graduate. It is a special time for both the graduate and their parents, as we all enter a new phase and a new journey. With each graduation from kindergarten, elementary, middle, high school, college and beyond, conversations you had with your children as they completed each level will flit through your mind as you watch them graduate from one level to the next phase of their lives. 

While waiting for the start of the graduation of our son from college, I multi-tasked by writing this post. Savoring the ceremonious surroundings, I also jotted notes on my smart phone. It occurred to me that writing and completing a book is much like the process of raising a child. Both books and children are born. Lots of life events happen, all while they are formulating and growing. Lessons are learned along the way. More growth happens. Days, turn into months which flow into years. A child's graduation signifies their passage to the world to complete the next phase of their life. Your book turned into an editor, ultimately graduates and releases to the world for all to read. 

As college graduates turn their tassels, they are signaling to the world, "I'm ready to start the next life phase." Family life and education have prepared them, and their own life lessons will begin. When a book you have written graduates with its release, you are signaling to the world, "Hey world, come read my baby and enjoy."

As Southern writer, Tennessee Williams said, "Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going." May all your book graduations/releases be a great memory and the segue to your next book.

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