Well, I have done it. I am a college graduate. About damn time. It still hasn’t all sunk in yet. I still wake up early every day, moaning in agony about how I have to get to 8 am class. But, alas! There is no 8 am class. There is no long drive. There is no project due tomorrow that I waited until the last hour to do. I don’t have to wear pants! Life is good. It’s good, until I can’t find a job, the student loan bills come in and I have to start wearing pants. But, let’s put that on the back burner for now.
I was full of mixed emotions on graduation day. The first scary thing about graduating is the fact that they don’t actually give you your final grades until after you walk the stage. That is terrifying. You walk the stage, only to find out that you have failed a core course and must return in the spring. I knew that I didn’t bomb any of my finals, so I wasn’t too worried. There’s just always that slim chance that shit may go awry. I actually didn’t do half bad this semester. I got an A on my blog project and an A in Earth and Space. The A on the blog I can believe, but the A in Earth and Space must have been clearly based on how much you didn’t know about the course. I failed all the tests and still managed to be at the top of my class. I’m not complaining or anything, but what the hell is that about? I think it had something to do with my professor being like 80 years old and actually thinking he was from space. (He’s actually a really nice guy.)
Before the ceremony, I received a card with my name on it, which I was to give to the man announcing the graduates names as they cross the stage. My luck is awful and of course, my card read, “Ahsley”. That’s not my name. That’s not my name. What is more frightening is how someone would say that name. My guess is it would really sound like Assley. Assley would be getting her diploma. The woman quickly scribbled out the error and wrote the correct spelling. My nerves subsided as soon as I found some friends in the waiting area. Only two were technically my “friends” while the others were aquaintinces. Or, as I like to call them, “People who I see in the halls, who I kind of know, but don’t talk to, based on mutual ignorance”. We gabbed about how we had “made it” and how ecstatic we were. My one friend gloated about graduating with honors, while I was just happy to graduate with all my sanity intact.
My gown was on, my cap was slightly tilted and that weird-ass hood was down my back. My family, friends and professors were there to cheer me on as I crossed the stage. The music was exactly how I pictured it. Because, you know, I’ve thought about this day over 100 times in my head. You should know this by now. I got instant chills as I walked across the stage and out of the gymnasium. I hugged my professor and advisor and screamed like a thirteen year old girl, who just found out that Billy “likes her likes her”. I found my family in the sea of people and hugged them. My parents were teary-eyed and proud. I am shocked that I did not cry at this event. I was really ready for it. I held it together pretty well. What I really wanted to cry at was the awful graduation speeches. “Let’s all laugh at my success, ha, ha, ha…ho…I’m not funny.”
The night before I had my graduation party. I have a pretty small family. For example, my father and I were watching a game show, where a man won a trip for about thirty people. My family would fill up about ten of those slots, while the rest would be random members of the studio audience. I love them dearly and appreciate everything they do for me. I especially love my grandparents, who even waited to fist fight each other after the ceremony, in the car. Ten minutes later they were buying the family pancakes and hugging each other. They are quite a pair. We had cake and ice cream that night, but I wasn’t too satisfied with the cake. We had told the cake decorator to put a film reel on the cake, but the film reel turned out more like a nineteenth century car wheel. It didn’t look like I majored in mass communications, it looked like I majored in transportation via wagons. It was still delicious.
Overall, it was a great day. I’m finally done school forever. For now, I’m going to save up every penny I get for my NYC job fund. I’m going to continue writing and hopefully start working full time at my current jobs at the beginning of the year. I’m excited to start a new chapter in my life and finally become an adult. Not one with like a husband or kids. More like one with a superficial boyfriend and a dog.
Happenstance 