She Won Valedictorian, But When Her Father And Sister Said They Might Not Make It To Graduation, She Gave Away Their Tickets

Chris Allen

7 months ago

Source: Reddit/Canva

Graduating high school is a momentous occasion in life.

The culmination of 4 years of growth, learning, trials & tribulations;

The end of one phase of life and the excitement for the next, graduation is massive.

But what if your family treats it like a little league baseball game?

Well this story gives us a glimpse of the frustrating, sad experience this girl had.

AITA for giving away my dad and my sister’s tickets to my graduation ceremony and telling them to not bother showing up

I (18F) have my high school graduation ceremony this Wednesday.

It was sent to my parents in an email that I will be giving a speech that day as my grades made me valedictorian of my school’s class of 2024, and I was excited to do so.

My school made us reserve and buy tickets to the ceremony weeks in advance, and I picked mine up on the 26th.

The problem started at dinner when I told my family I picked up the tickets for my graduation day and would keep them with me until the day of just to make sure they don’t get lost.

My dad told me that he and my sister had plans for an hour before the ceremony, but that my mom would be there the whole time, and that they’d try to be there for the afterparty.

She couldn’t believe her ears.

I was honestly shocked for a moment, before starting to laugh, assuming they weren’t serious.

When I realized they actually weren’t joking, I’ll admit I was a bit mad.

I’m usually a very shy and non-confrontational person, even around my family, but I started yelling at my dad and sister, asking if they were seriously ditching my graduation ceremony.

She explained why that “plan” of theirs was pointless.

I told them that the afterparty was useless to attend, and that all the pictures of the graduates with their families would be taken at least 2 hours before the ceremony.

They said it’s fine and we can take our own pictures the day after my graduation, but I got up and left dinner.

So she took matters into her own hands.

Over the weekend, I saw a few people on my class group chat complain that they didn’t get enough tickets, so I offered up the two tickets I had, and met up with a girl from my class to give them to her.

Even though I told her not to, she actually paid me the original price for them.

When the topic of graduation was brought up by my dad today during lunch, I told him that I gave the other two tickets away and only my mom will be attending, so they shouldn’t bother with the afterparty.

He got mad and asked why I would do that, to which I replied that I don’t see the point in wasting money on tickets if they’re not going to use them.

So you do care then, Dad?

My dad blew up on me, saying I’m acting like a spoiled brat, and it’s not like I’ll die if he and my sister are a bit late to my graduation.

I spoke to a few people about it, my friends and my grandma.

My friends said good riddance and if they consider their plans more important, they can have fun.

But my grandma said that while she understands my side, I shouldn’t have given away the tickets just to spite my dad, because maybe he would have changed his mind and gone on time.

So I’m looking for a non-biased opinion. AITA?

She lets us know exactly what the Dad and sister were going to miss her valedictorian address for…

Edit for info: the plans my dad and sister have is some sleepover with her and her friend group in the north, around a 2 hour drive from where we live.

The parents didn’t want to leave a bunch of under 16 year old girls alone that far, so everyone’s parents are also going for supervision (apart from my mom who is going to be at my graduation)

Let’s see what folks had to say.

A valedictorian themselves spoke up in favor of the poster.