Here's to the class of 2006 - and an outstanding nephew

I was tired, didn't get much sleep and really didn't want to spend four hours on the road.

But there's nowhere else I would rather have been at my nephew's graduation on Saturday. Seeing him laugh with friends before the ceremony, looking solemn as he wanted onto the floor with "Pomp and Circumstance" playing in the background, or proudly accepting his diploma and quickly walking across the stage and back to his seat.

(When I teased him about it later, saying his running down the ramp made it difficult to get pictures since I was the "official" family photographer for the event, he grinned without much chagrin or apology and said, "I was trying to catch up." He never really said why, but I'm guessing he wanted to get back to his friends and his row since he was among the last graduates to walk across the stage.)

I've covered a lot of graduations over the years and I never get tired of watching the graduates' excitement and joy as they head off into the future, or seeing the pride and incredulity on their parents' faces as they see their children so adult in their caps and gowns.

It wasn't any different on Saturday — and I imagine it won't be any different when Lake Pend Oreille students graduate Thursday, or when Clark Fork High School on Friday and Sandpoint High School on Saturday.

If I could sit on my nephew long enough — which might be required since we made him stand on his head for a picture with his graduation banner which his younger brother had deliberately hung upside down — I would tell him many things.

I would tell him how proud I am of him, of the man he is becoming. I would tell him that one of my favorite memories is sitting in the back seat of his parents' car when he was about 2 years old and teaching him "valley talk" — and listening to him chortle as only a toddler can as he said, "Awesome, dude."

I would tell him to continue to be himself, to follow his heart and to pursue his dreams — the same words of advice and love as other proud aunts, grandparents and parents will whisper to their own graduates later this week.

To my nephew, Brian, and other members of the class of 2006, congratulations. The best really is yet to come.

Caroline Lobsinger is the managing editor of the Bonner County Daily Bee and the proud aunt of Brian M. Cummings, class of 2006, Kamiakin High School.