With all due respect to the countless seniors graduating from their respective high schools, colleges and trade schools, there is a bigger graduation that occurred earlier this week. My son graduated from preschool.

And while he hasn't quite mastered the fancy adding, subtracting and spelling that many of the other "bigger school" graduates have mastered, he is very ready to move on to higher education (kindergarten.)

The part that's difficult to accept, however, is that through his accomplishments, I become a little bit older. How else can you explain the fact that I now have a 5-year-old boy who follows directions, stands in line and knows to raise his hand when he has a question? If he is getting older each year that means sadly, I am aging as well (There's my talent for math and deductive reasoning coming through.)

I can't get him to eat his vegetables or stop picking his nose, yet these wonderful teachers are turning him into a functional, socially responsible person. It's enough to make me realize that his learning is going to go well beyond my meager capabilities.

Thank goodness for that. Otherwise, he'd be a rather unfocused, vertically challenged (short) nonvegetable eating man — kind of like his father and his grandpa.

But as I watch him grow and move from one grade to the next, I can't help but wonder where his life will take him. There are times I am envious and other times when I am simply proud.

Will he be a doctor, a rock star or even a NASCAR driver? Maybe he will do something for a living that doesn't even exist yet. If you doubt that, take a look around and see how many Web Page Designers there were in 1985 or how many eBay consultants existed then and you'll see my point.

So maybe the best question to come out of this graduation is "how do I make certain he has every opportunity to follow his calling?" After all, it's my job as a parent to ensure that he is introduced to as many cultural and social environments as possible, while at the same time, instilling core values that will help him later in life. Wow. That's pretty deep for an unfocused, meat-eating vertically challenged guy like myself.

"Where did that come from," you might ask? My own father and mother, of course.

And that's why graduation is so darn cool.

We tend to think that it means something different at each stage of our lives. As the graduate, the world is yours. Uncharted waters and new frontiers open for a lifetime of exploration and filled with wonder.

As a parent, the world becomes your kid's, filled with possibility, passion and energy. It's a chance to see the fruits of our labor (literally, if you are a mother.)

Some would argue it's about letting go and watching your child become the person each is destined to become. I would contend that while it's important to let go, graduation is about moving ahead together as a pair, allowing the relationship to take on new life. The word 'graduate' itself means to elevate and move forward.

The uncharted waters and new frontiers aren't just for the students, though. They are for us as well, and the only way to face them is head-on, eager to see what life has to offer for us. When our kids graduate, we do too.

Congratulations class of 2007, whatever school you are graduating from.