5.22.2009

The Post About Pricey Caps and Unflattering Gowns

Ahh... The smell of accomplishment. It's also the smell of paying your own bills and finding watermarked paper so your internships and workstudy jobs will seem more like...experience. I love this time of year because it takes me back to Spring, 1998. I was graduating from Emory University with a double major in Sociology and Women's Studies with a minor in African American Studies. (my conservative WASP-y Dad was so proud.) Here are some highlights of that weekend...

1. My commencement speaker was the Dalai Lama. Yes, that Dalai Lama. The best part was his holiness' speech lasted 9 minutes. Since the Georgia heat was bearing down on a couple thousand overdressed but educated souls, he chose wisely.

2. Often, when you graduate you get a fake folder with no diploma inside (like the one you see to your left). But when you pay upwards of $35,000 a year in tuition, they're able to hire someone to coordinate it so you're handed your actual diploma. Unless you are Chris G., who was sitting next to me. He did the dance of going on stage, having his name called, hearing his family hoot and holler and then stopped for the memorial portrait. However, when he sat down, we simultaneously opened our folders. Mine had a shiny certificate that guaranteed me a difficult job search. His had a shiny letter that guaranteed him summer school since he had failed Chemistry.

3. I proved that weekend I had not inherited the "pack rat" genes of my parents. We packed up Betsy, the Chevy Cavalier (may she rest in peace) and their truck with the big uglies, like furniture. In the midst of this, I contracted some sort of walking penumonia/ebola virus. My parents took off a day before me which left me with clothes, kitchen items, books, and a death-wish illness. Betsy filled up much quicker than expected and my utensils, textbooks, and tchotckes ended up in the dumpster. I've never looked back.

What do you remember about graduation from college, high school, or kindergarten? (kindergarten graduation is technically the dumbest event ever. Yeah, I said it.)

{image: unknown, but overpriced photographer from Atlanta)

4 comments:

  1. I didn't know you went to Emory! I just graduated from there! Vicente Fox was our speaker. I would have LOVED the Dalai Lama! It rained a little bit. I got a shiny folder that looked just like the one in the picture with an ENORMOUS diploma inside. Seriously, it was massive! It was a long day. At least we got a break. I felt bad for the undergrads who had to stay in the same place for hours on end. We had a second ceremony for the diplomas a few hours later...

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  2. When you are a mommy, Kindergarten graduation is just sweet!

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  3. C: Congrats!!! Vicente Fox is pretty snazzy too, but he probably spoke longer...you are too right about the heat!

    TS: I'm going to have to take your word for it :)

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  4. We had the BEST SPEAKER EVER at my college graduation: me.

    And I need to know how to black things out (like you did yourself) because I have a cute photo of my nephew that cannot go online unless I black out his man parts. I do not want to be accused of poor decisions with children. However, said photo is important to post for later-life trauma (like when he starts dating).

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Don't be afraid if I chase your rabbit comment...

 
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