Early yesterday morning, my mother came into my room to wake me up. I had to bus to catch & missing it wasn't an option. After figuring out what in the blue hell "It's 5:10" meant, I rolled out of bed & got ready. Yours truly had his university graduation to attend.
After 5 years, I can honestly say that having to wake up to be on time for trains sucks. Probably better than waking up to drive to school but I digress.
On second thought, waking up early in general is pretty much a drag. I made the usual voyage from home to Union Station earlier than usual because with the ceremony taking place at 9:30am, we had to be on campus by 7:30am to get ready. Because really, putting on a gown is that difficult, right?
Yes. Putting on the gown was that difficult. Getting them was easy. I ran into a friend of mine & we got a decent spot in the line up for gowns. I got to meet his parents, which was cool, & we all got to witness a gang of cyatties join the line behind us, which was also a good time. "I was expecting science nerds", his mom said. Like really, how is the dress you'd wear to a club on a Saturday the same thing you wear to graduate in? Not that I'm complaining. Believe me, I didn't mind.
Not that I was looking either. The gown itself is basically a robe but the thing you put over it was complex.
Like, Tetris Cube complex. Imagine a hallway full of science students all struggling with the same issue. T'was pretty ridiculous. As A.R. pointed out, "These are the Doctors of the future".
We were going to shoot a how-to video for YouTube but again, someone needs to have some semblance of an idea as to how to wear it before that can happen.
After 2 hours of standing around waiting, an issue presented itself to yours truly. While searching the program for the ceremony to estimate how long our class would have to wait it turns out that I would be the first of the science graduates to cross the stage. Apparently this was entertaining to people as texts & tweets were sent informing people who weren't even there that I was going to be in the spotlight for a second
, aka there was a pretty good chance I was about to screw something up. No pressure.
The ceremony was
shorter more enjoyable than my high school graduation. We were addressed by an astronaut, which wasn't "out of this world"
IMO. I had a wee bout with nervousness as the engineers before us started crossing the stage. I remember at the end of my Aquinas days, the applause I got as I crossed the stage was minute. It was like only two people knew me
, which is crazy because I showed up with three. I wasn't about to do that again. So as I got to the head of the line & a former professor of mine announced that the Biology students were about to take the stage I slowly lowered my head & raised one finger to the sky,
not THAT finger, as the applause built. And when they called my name that applause didn't stop. I would no longer be haunted by that golf clap from years ago. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't really anything special. However, I smile thinking about it. Moments like that are worth the thankless hours in front of computer screens typing reports/plotting graphs
/hiding the fact that you're not working. People say "You only live once". If that's the case, get your moments in before your time is up because one day you'll wake up & realise that another chapter of your life just wrapped up. And f you can do so without looking like a cyat, all the better.
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