Late Graduation Thoughts

This is a long overdue post. I have watched as my blogger friends have written and posted about graduation. I have read these posts with a certain disbelief. Graduating college feels like a birthday, but not quite as cool.

On a birthday, everyone is celebrating you, cheering you on and encouraging you to be happy, etcetera. Same thing on graduation day.

So, that being said, let me tell you about my graduation day.

I woke up early and tired. After showering, I grabbed my already packed bag and walked over to campus. Because I was the student speaker for my graduation, I was invited to a special breakfast and lunch with the platform party and faculty. Awesome, right?

So I had a delicious bagel and some orange juice while shootin’ the breeze with some deans and President Arminana. It was mostly small talk-esque stuff. But.  Still. Oh, and Morgan Spurlock was eating at a table parallel to me.

After breakfast, I went with the faculty and staff on the platform party to robe up. Which was a bit chaotic but slightly entertaining. Then we moved over to queue up between the Student Union and The Commons.  It was great front row viewing of all my friends as they walked in. I was so excited to be where I was and to be speaking, but there was an empty sinking feeling that I should have been with my friends.

As I walked through the throng of people, I saw students, friends colleagues. People who have lived and interacted with me over the past four years. People who have changed my life, who have listened to my hopes and fears, who have called me for help. People who I have had adventures with, who I have shared meals with, who I’ve gone out for late nights with. I saw supervisors, family, teachers.  I saw my whole life.

I walked past rows of my fellow graduates as I approached the podium I would soon be speaking from.  I stood there a moment, dazed at the massive amount of people in the crowd. Yet for as large as the crowd was, it didn’t really seem that big.

I sat and listened to the opening speeches. The University President. The Chair of the Faculty. The ASI President. And then I was up. I didn’t feel a thing. There was sheer joy. I was ready to bring the energy. To “pump up the jam,” as it were. And I went through my lines.  I felt joy and pleasure as people laughed and cheered.

And then, as I sat down, all the fame, all the notoriety, all of the pent-up joy and energy, all of the excitement that had been building all ended. This was truly the sign that I was done with my undergraduate career. All the classes, all the positions I’d held, everything else was done.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. I spent too little time with so many people. I went from commencement to take pictures afterwords, to chatting, to receiving gifts, to going to lunch. From lunch I went to spend time with my family, then I went to visit a friend, then I went out to the bars. After one drink and about half an hour I was exhausted. I asked Justin and Alli if they were ready to go also, and we all left.

At the end of the day, I collapsed on my bed and passed out, the same man I was when I woke up. Just now I’m officially edu-ma-cated. Somewhat.