While I have fully embraced the Parade of Lasts, consciously or subconsciously I have more or less kept the reality of Commissioning Week at bay.
Perhaps it’s because I got swept up in the excitement about my son’s Naval Academy Commissioning Week, only to have the COVID-19 lockdown turn that upside down. It could be because Cate is my youngest and the moment she grasps that diploma, my role as a parent will shift into a new phase and also marking the end of my nine-year stint as a military academy parent.
I’ll board that plane in less than a week as part of celebrating a birthday that ends in a zero and despite all my planning (and I am an obsessive planner when it comes to travel), there are a number of logistical failure points that could send things sideways. Aside from the obvious things like the final formal parade, commissioning ceremony and graduation exercises (including the post-event air show), there are a number of really exciting items on the agenda, but I’m afraid to say them (or write them) out loud for fear of jinxing them. Perhaps that’s a side effect from my 2020 USNA experience.
In quiet moments, I distract myself with any number of things, one of them being writing (as you are witness) and another being music. I am not an obsessive music listener, but I did turn my love of connecting music to moments into eight playlists celebrating the USNA’s Herndon Climb. I love the feeling of finding the right song for the event or situation.
So for this week, I’ve been toying with three songs, all quite different, though each appropriate for this final run up to the end of the Parade of Lasts.
As anyone who has been to a sporting event will tell you, this is the obvious choice. It is definitely the Final Countdown for the Parade of Lasts, but aside from the chorus and the unintended nod to the Space Force – “We’re headed to Venus, and still we stand tall” – the post-apocalyptic premise of the song doesn’t exactly fit the mood.
The edgier sound of The Hives more matches my energy heading into Commissioning Week. Like Final Countdown, the premise – in this case someone who has been wronged (“I was right all along, you’ve been tagging along) – doesn’t quite match, but some of the lyrics seem to hit the mark.
‘Cause I have done it before and I can do it some more
I’ve got my eye on the score, I’m gonna cut to the core
It’s too late, it’s too soon, or is it?
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, boom
The last line certainly feels appropriate this week.
Discovered this one almost two decades ago on a Madden video game soundtrack, of all things. It’s more upbeat and happy than the previous two tracks. I’ve listened to this song countless times (and included it on one of the aforementioned Herndon playlists) and the lyrics have also intrigued me.
Hey now, wake up
It’s a beautiful day
Hey now, look up
You’re always turning away
Are you falling asleep?
Hey now, wake up
Are you looking away?
Hey now, look up
Are you watching?
It’s a brand-new day
And you shouldn’t be fading away
Despite some trepidation about a number of things that can go sideways over the next two weeks, it will be a beautiful day (several days, in fact). I will continue to remind myself to be in the moment and focus on what’s important – it’s not my time, it’s my daughter’s time and regardless of what goes right or wrong according to my (likely unrealistic) plans, I will do what the song suggests and look up. Because when it’s all said and done, it will be a brand-new day.
I have dozens of other songs rolling through my head about the last five years, but what about you? Do any of these songs hit the mark? What’s on your Commissioning Week playlist?
My Kid The Cadet 