schmoovenet

I posted it on the various social media forums in advance but wasn’t sure myself that it would happen. My blog goes back far enough back so that you can track and see my progress, but here’s the quick run down on why:

All of the SEC are represented with flags but UT’s color choice is easily the most noticeable.

• I finished in August 2009. I was one of the last classes in my program to not require a thesis project so it was just nine semesters of varied classes (mostly in Creative Arts for which I earned a CERTIFICATE). My last class ended with a campus scavenger hunt that finished in a TGIFridays (say what you will, they make fancydrinks like no other). I did not walk at the end of summer because my school, Vanderbilt University, only has one ceremony a year and let me tell you, they TURN IT OUT (more on this later).
• I was late filing my intent-to-graduate form so I didn’t officially graduate until December 2009, twelve years after I got my BA. At this point I was planning a trip to Zambia and I think this was about the time I realized the two conflicted, I would be in Zambia in May 2010 when most of my school friends would walk in Commencement. I wrote the proper authorities and they consented to let me walk in May 2011. I continued to get mailings, brochures, and frantic emails asking why I hadn’t ordered regalia yet. I emailed the proper authorities and they assured me that it was a mistake and I was due to walk in May 2011. As it turned out, my name was in the big program of graduates. Uh oh.
• I followed up in January 2011. They had me on the list but hadn’t sent me any of the stuff they’d sent the year before. So they sent me two Commencement guides. I ordered my regalia and later got an email asking why I hadn’t and I needed to get this done and omg omg omg but it was all sorted out in the end. Regalia ordered, later picked up and ooohed over.

Yeah, we fancy.

Let’s get to the day of (how’s THAT for Master’s level grammar?). I had planned to take the bus to the gathering place to avoid parking. Of course it rains, which means the glorious lawn ceremony moves into the cramped gym. As noted on one of the Overheard at VU sites “only public schools graduate indoors.” So I have to drive. I decide to leave an hour earlier and park in my regular work lot but that was a mistake. I was stuck in traffic and let me tell you, nothing makes me Hulk out like traffic. I get there with barely any time to spare and don’t even have my regalia on yet! I run through the gym’s lobby putting the stuff on and shouting “Move! Graduate coming through! Running late! I’m actually graduating and have to be somewhere! MOVE!!” I get to my gathering point and my hood is on upside down, apparently. They’re complicated, you see. Luckily, my friend Bates is there and he calms me down and gets my hood going the right way. Oh, they make you rite SOOOOO many papers but can they take five minutes to explain this? They answer is no, they do not, but they do give you a picture that’s incorrect.

So now we wait. They had us pretty high up in the gym which seems like a slight but was actually to our benefit. See, I don’t think this place is air conditioned. They hand out fans and water because of this. Up in our perch we had room to spread out and since we were in the upper atmosphere it was much cooler. My friend Laura shows up (she’s the PHd pictured above and NO this does not make her Dr Laura, do not even ask) and gets to sit next to me since we are both in The Graduate School even though she’s getting a REAL degree and I’m getting a personal enrichment degree (Fancy phrase for “no, this degree will not get me a better job, but thanks for asking”).

We are awed during the touching parts of the ceremony, we giggle during the other parts. I kept wanting to yell “10 points to Gryffindor” except Laura tells me she’s Hufflepuff (we still talk but the damage can’t be repaired). Then it’s time for us graduate students to go.

See, if it hadn’t rained we would be on a giant lawn and then we’d go a few feet to a different lawn for the conferring of degrees. You might think since it’s raining they’d keep us where we are, but no, we still go to the different lawn even though it’s now significantly further away. It’s drizzling but nothing that will kill us so we head off. It’s amazing how few cars wanted to stop for this giant line of folks in heavy gowns but whatevs, they just jealous.

After the agony of getting my hood wrong and the glory of finally getting it right we have to take them off and carry them in.

We get line up according to degree conferred (we’re behind the MFAs, those lucky ducks) and march in. Another program is handed out and I look up my name and Laura’s to get an idea of where she’s sitting and how long after me she gets hooded. Fun fact: Laura’s sitting two seats over from an ex-boyfriend. Someone I don’t want to deal with at all on this wonderful day where I actually feel hopeful! But we all get hooded, we all clap, and I get my picture professionally taken but never get a copy. Then the food.

First, the Graduate School has its own reception with delicious tartlets and melt in your mouth macarons. Tiny sandwiches. Fancy foods! But this is not what I was looking forward to.

Strawberries and champagne! I’ve never had strawberries as good as they serve at commencement, I don’t know where they come from but they have many tables like this. Champagne at a nearby table. It was crowded as hell so we got in and got out. You could tell the undergrads from the grad students: The undergrads were quick to get out of their gowns and had them draped over arms or over parents’ arms. Grad students were sweating it out with heavy hoods around the necks.

“Oh yeah. I guess I should’ve gotten dad a glass of champagne. These are mine, though.”

I turned in my regalia (dropped unceremoniously in a box) but kept the hat and tassel. As I was leaving the drop off point I saw this:

A sign of things to come?

And later had a nice facebook post from my friend Mary who told me to stop by Ben and Jerry’s, there was a graduation present waiting for me!