Just yesterday, my youngest child graduated from high school, and now I feel like I’m standing at the end of an era.

I’ve been hit with a wave of emotions lately, and surprisingly, none of it has to do with feeling old. It’s not “Wow, I’m aging.” It’s, “Wow… my babies aren’t babies anymore.”

Somehow, the years slipped by while I was busy packing lunches, helping with homework, cheering from sidelines, staying up late waiting for everyone to get home safely, and soaking in all the ordinary moments that never actually felt ordinary. I loved watching my kids grow into who they are. I loved every stage, even the exhausting ones. But now they’re adults and young adults, building lives of their own, and there’s a quiet ache that comes with realizing those little-kid years are truly over.

My youngest graduating feels especially emotional because it closes the chapter on having children in school. No more parent-teacher conferences. No more school pickup lines. No more teenage chaos filling the house every day. It’s beautiful and bittersweet all at once.

But, despite all of the emotions swirling around me, I knew one thing for certain: I knew I wanted to give him a lei for his graduation.

I was born and raised in Hawaii (I’m part Hawaiian), so teaching my children about that part of their heritage has always been important to me. In Hawaii, leis represent love, affection, pride, and celebration. They mark milestones and honor the people we care about. At my own graduation, I was absolutely covered in leis, and I still remember how loved I felt standing there.

I wanted my son to feel that too. I wanted him to have a physical reminder of how proud we are of him and how deeply he’s loved.

Fresh flower leis, however, are a little expensive—especially because my son wanted some for a few of his friends too. So instead of spending several hundred dollars, I decided to lean into my somewhat awesome crafting skills and make satin ribbon leis myself.

After scouring the internet for tutorials and wrestling aggressively with the first lei, I finally got the hang of it. Now it’s actually become relaxing, and each one got easier.

But then the universe decided I was having too much fun or it was too easy and made the last lei the most difficult to get done (ran out of ribbon, had to find some, string broke, ribbon, ripped, etc.). I actually spent the night before graduation fixing and finishing the last lei until about eleven-thirty. Did I also mention that the night before graduation was my birthday? Yeah. Happy Birthday to me, lol.

But, I got them all done and they looked good, if I do say so myself, lol. My son was happy and his friends were excited and thanked me numerous times, which was cute.

Hopefully my son and his friends loved them as much as I’ve loved making them.