Our last child graduates this week. Lynnae, author of several years’ worth of columns in this newspaper titled “Beanie Babies and Beyond,” graduates from Mount Si. It’s a cause for celebration, but also a cause for reflection.

Somebody should have told me that raising a daughter would test my patience more than most other things. The problem with Lynnae is she is a lot smarter than I am. Many of you would say that really isn’t a good barometer of intelligence, but she is also smarter than her mother.

Sons are easy to figure out. Maybe that’s because I was one once and tested my own parents’ patience. Luckily, both my kids are far better people than I ever was at their age.

Lynnae is no exception; she is intelligent, quick witted and a bit of a screwball, but I honestly wouldn’t have her any other way. She will do well at anything she decides to do and will someday make her mark on the world, probably 10-fold as large a mark as that made by her parents.

The days of my ability to protect her, as a father, are quickly diminishing. She will have to make more common sense decisions that will affect the doors open to her in the future. Our hope is that we have instilled enough of our own common sense in her that those decisions are not difficult, or have adverse consequences.

Both of us are extremely proud of our daughter. Her future is bright and there’s nothing in the way of her accomplishing whatever she wants to do.

To the entire class of 2007, thanks for many years of great memories. You are a class of accomplishments, having achieved many things unique in education. I could name off numerous individuals who have been fun to watch grow from children to adults, but the list, in this case, would be way too long.

The only real advice I can provide is to work hard, never accept a mediocre answer and give back as much as you can to the community in which you live.