It's that time of year when we are looking for graduation layout ideas. So we've got a few for digital and paper scrapbookers alike.

Graduation is such an exciting time. All the hard work is over, and the future is full of hope, perhaps mixed with a little fear.

Whether your graduate is finishing High School or university, major changes are ahead for them, and probably for you, too.

This Erma Bombeck quote caused a smile …

"Graduation day is tough for adults. They go to the ceremony as parents. They come home as contemporaries. After twenty-two years of child-raising, they are unemployed."

Although I might beg to differ, and suggest the 'unemployed' phase for a parent, as Mark Twain is reported as saying, is that period between leaving school, making one's own way in the world, and realizing, as Twain says, 'how much my father had learned' in the intervening period.

And while we're at it, just for fun, here is another Mark Twain quote that caught my eye: My father was an amazing man. The older I got, the smarter he got. (Perhaps there's another layout in that.)

Blossom & Bloom: a graduation layout

I asked Isabella about the inspiration for her layout 'Blossom & Bloom'.

"I wanted to make some graduation layouts so I went looking for suitable quotes." she said. "I knew this one by Eleanor Powell was just right as soon as I saw it. It says, 'What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God'. There is so much hope and so much 'future' in that sentiment. While I am so proud of what my children have achieved, the bigger prize comes with running the rest of the race well and honoring God with what they become.

"Then when I decided to use the flower clip from Scrap Girls the 'Blossom and Bloom' fell into place naturally."

Subtle Distinctions

I went looking to see what the difference was between 'blossom' and 'bloom'.

Blossom means to develop and flourish.

Bloom means the point at which a flower is at its peak, or for a person perhaps in their prime, certainly a condition or time of greatest vigor and freshness. There's also the idea of established and great potential.

'Blossom and bloom where you are planted'

While it's good to have a certain amount of ambition, if we are not careful we will always be looking for something else rather than doing the best we can where we are. Other opportunities may arise, but if they don't, by not learning to be satisfied and making the most of now, today, we add a lot of unnecessary stress to our lives.

Learning to be satisfied where we are does not mean that we kiss hope and ambition goodbye. Just as a flower can be moved to another position in the garden, the time may come when we are transplanted too, but it may not. How much are we missing by not appreciating the positives of our current circumstances because we are always looking for something else?