Graduation Dilemma - Suggestions needed!

[kymom99]

My graduation was in a church 40 years ago. Tickets were given out.

My son’s graduation was in a convocation center at a local private university. We were each given 8 tickets. They told the graduates that any extra guests beyond 8 could be let in 10 minutes prior. That way the immediate families didn’t have to camp out for good seats. Sometimes underclassmen might want to come or a graduate has a larger than average family.

 

[Kitty 34]

My niece and nephew are both graduating HS on the same night/time. The graduations are in 2 different locations. Since I obviously can't be at both, how do I choose which one to attend??

Hi OP and welcome to the DIS.

You're just now getting invited, especially being family?? I'd probably just go to the one you heard from first.

 

[mjkacmom]

Oh, and I have had to get extra tickets since we have 5 kids (very close friends with the principal, one of my husband’s oldest closest friend, we all went to HS together at the school kids went to) it took me a few graduations to realize no one checked tickets. For college graduations they were stricte.

 

[mumto3girls]

Our school graduates 300-400 per class. We get unlimited tickets if it’s held at the outdoor football stadium, but if the weather is bad it moves indoors and then we get 4 per family. There are a couple of rain dates before that happens though.

 

[fla4fun]

We had 329 students at my graduation. It was held in the gym and each student got four tickets for the gym. They set up a camera and broadcast it simultaneously on the big screen in the school auditorium. If you needed more than four tickets, you could request tickets for the auditorium overflow. I heard it was full also. I only had four guests, so I didn’t need the overflow.

To the OP, I would agree with declining both invites and sending each one a gift, as you appear to be close with both. It’s really the only fair way to avoid hurt feelings.

 

[barkley]

How the hell is there limited space in a football stadium?

they used to hold some of the local graduations at the university football stadium near us-8600 capacity but then they decided between seating/parking/fire code limitations to move it to an in town larger indoor sporting and entertainment arena-12,600 capacity. they still have to limit tickets to graduations due to fire code (and you are out of your mind if you travel anywhere in the vicinity of the place on the multiple weekends that they are cycling graduations-sometimes 2 per day-b/c streets are closed and traffic is being directed ).

 

[ncc1701]

Where d o you live? graduation here is open to the community and everyone goes. I have never heard of tickets being used for a gradutation - that would limit the amount of people able to attend

My High School was the same with only 6 tickets outside and 2 or 3 if weather was an issue ( indoor ceremony) . I live the NJ and our school stadium ( bleachers actually) could only hold so many people. My class was close to 300 graduates.

 

[sam_gordon]

This is what the typical high school football stadium (word used pretty loosely) looks like around me:

View attachment 763263

We have fields with stands that size, but they're for smaller schools.

Here's our FB stadium (again, 400-500 kids/class):

It seats about 4K. Not sure how much standing room there would be.

 

[DisneyHardin]

When I was in high school, gasp, 25 years ago, we got 6 tickets. Our graduation was in the performance auditorium of the small college in our town. We just had 117 in my graduating class. My whole family wanted to come, so I was able to finagle a bunch of extra tickets from the school secretary because I was an office aid.

 

[MrsPete]

Another vote for attending neither, but send each a nice gift.

Our school streams the ceremonies live; I bet yours does too. You could watch them from the comfort of your own home while wearing pajamas.

 

[barkley]

i was in the biggest ever (before or since) graduating class for my high school and i recall it was impossible for families to connect with each other after the event b/c of venue staff trying to empty it out/clear the parking lot. would someone even know if someone attended their graduation or not????

 

[slo]

Hi OP and welcome to the DIS.

You're just now getting invited, especially being family?? I'd probably just go to the one you heard from first.

I agree - this is what I would do too.
I’m a little surprised at the amount of people saying they wouldn’t go - maybe it’s because I have no nieces or nephews and I wish I did. I’d love to have nieces and/or nephews to love and support. Yes, graduations are boring, but so what - it’s a few hours out of your life - that’s nothing. If I had a niece and/or nephew I’d sit and be bored all day if it would make them happy, especially for a big moment in their life like a graduation.

 

[Moliphino]

I agree - this is what I would do too.
I’m a little surprised at the amount of people saying they wouldn’t go - maybe it’s because I have no nieces or nephews and I wish I did. I’d love to have nieces and/or nephews to love and support. Yes, graduations are boring, but so what - it’s a few hours out of your life - that’s nothing. If I had a niece and/or nephew I’d sit and be bored all day if it would make them happy, especially for a big moment in their life like a graduation.

I'm from a big family (mom was one of 8, dad was one of 5, I have 23 cousins). There was no way everyone could attend all of those graduations. Graduation parties sure, but not the ceremony.

 

[cayennews]

My niece and nephew are both graduating HS on the same night/time. The graduations are in 2 different locations. Since I obviously can't be at both, how do I choose which one to attend??

If you do want to go to one I would let your siblings decide, that way there are no hard feelings.

 

[verleniahall]

So that there will be enough seats for everyone?? My HS graduation (nearly 30 years ago) had 400+ kids, and was held at our civic center. Still limited to 6 tickets per kid. That's 2400 people, 2800 including the graduates. And today's classes (in the same area) are even larger than that. Not sure where you are that has venues that hold a lot more than that.

Our graduation class has 30 students _ 3 foreign exchange students -

 

[RoseColored97]

We're pretty lucky here I guess, there is no limit to how many you can bring. I had 12 family/relatives (cousins, aunts, etc) attend my high school graduation, other students had many more. Our class probably had 300ish students. Our district rents out a huge venue (7000+ seats) and has each high school ceremony there at different times on a Saturday). University was different, I think you could bring 6 but I didn't have a graduation ceremony because of COVID. I chose not to walk for my Master's so not sure about that.

To answer OP, it just depends on who you are closer with. Are the students on different sides of the family? An option too would be you attend the graduation on your side of the family and then husband/wife/significant other attends on the other side. If it will cause drama, I would just not go to either then go to each party. Or, take the grad out to eat later. Situations like this make it difficult to come to a decision that doesn't cause hurt feelings.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

Where d o you live? graduation here is open to the community and everyone goes. I have never heard of tickets being used for a gradutation - that would limit the amount of people able to attend

Our HS's have 350+ graduates ( 500 + in my day). There has been a TICKET ONLY policy for as long as I can remember.

 

[ncc1701]

This is what the typical high school football stadium (word used pretty loosely) looks like around me:

View attachment 763263

That is pretty close to my High School, but we had about double the bleachers. As a PP stated in certain parts of the US, high school football isn't a big deal. I only went as a student and a few times a couple of years after I graduated (my Sister was a student). Since my Sister & I weren't cheerleaders or in the marching band , my parents never went to a game.

 

[bluezy]

Where d o you live? graduation here is open to the community and everyone goes. I have never heard of tickets being used for a gradutation - that would limit the amount of people able to attend

We're in SE PA and up until 2021, our HS required tickets. We have about 250 kids graduating every year. For many years, graduation was held in the gym and each student got 5 tickets for the gym, and 2 tickets for the auditorium where they would live stream the ceremony from the gym. In 2021, they had graduation outside in the football stadium and things went well, so that's what they do now and students don't have a limit on how many people they can invite. The catch is that if it's raining that day they will potentially delay the start of the ceremony to as late as 8:30 p.m. (currently scheduled for 7:00) if the rain is going to move out. If the rain will be constant during the scheduled time, they will move graduation to the next day...or later...depending on the weather.

 

[verleniahall]

We're in SE PA and up until 2021, our HS required tickets. We have about 250 kids graduating every year. For many years, graduation was held in the gym and each student got 5 tickets for the gym, and 2 tickets for the auditorium where they would live stream the ceremony from the gym. In 2021, they had graduation outside in the football stadium and things went well, so that's what they do now and students don't have a limit on how many people they can invite. The catch is that if it's raining that day they will potentially delay the start of the ceremony to as late as 8:30 p.m. (currently scheduled for 7:00) if the rain is going to move out. If the rain will be constant during the scheduled time, they will move graduation to the next day...or later...depending on the weather.

Wow - graduation here is at 1 pm on mother's day