Graduation

[icepixie]

It still hasn't quite sunk in that I am not a student anymore. I've been attached to some school or other since I was five years old. Ack.

I think the best part was right at 10:30: the bells started pealing, and we walked down Middle Path with faculty lining both sides, clapping for us and smiling at us and wishing us well.

Not to say it was all downhill from there, but it did go on kind of forever. There were five honorary degrees, first of all, and a long speech from our class president. Kerry's speech was okay, but not particularly memorable, and the references to a few the student profiles on the website were a bit of a trying-too-hard sort of gesture. Ah, well. He talked about the fourteen-hour voting lines in Gambier in 2004, which is what we were all expecting and the reason we probably got him as our commencement speaker in the first place, so *shrug*.

There were only 406 of us, so the names went by relatively quickly, at least in comparison to the speeches and addresses and other things that took up the first hour and forty-five minutes. All too quickly, even; there was a flurry of Latin and getting a purple and white "hood" (aka "sash put on around your neck instead of across your shoulder") and walking across the stage and getting a diploma and then it was over.

Dad got some very striking video of everyone throwing their caps after senior sing on the steps of Rosse (photo). I wish I'd been a little further back in the group so I could have seen more of it, but at least I wasn't on the Bleachers of Death. I was one of very few people who knew the tune to The Thrill (thank you, Pealers), but the other three songs went pretty well, despite Doc insulting us after the first three. We rallied for Kokosing Farewell.

Me
Not the best picture of us, but I think it's cute. Left to right: Sarah, Ellen, Chandra, me, Whitney
Again, not a great photo, but it's something: Sarah, Ellen, Whitney, me, Chandra

Then there was endless packing and loading and driving. We stayed the night in Cincinnati, and got home at noon today. I was squished into the smallest space I've ever had to occupy, bar perhaps that ballroom trip to Cornell freshman year when there were seven of us plus our stuff in a minivan for eight hours each way over one weekend. And now I have to unpack all of this crap. Meep.

Thanks to all of you who offered congratulations; I'll try to respond individually once I unpack enough to at least have a bed to sleep on, and possibly a floor to walk on. :)

Comments

[cheekygal.livejournal.com]

Yaaaay! Congraduations. ;)

[icepixie]

Hee. Thanks. :)