for those of you who missed me at church on sunday, no, i wasn't sleeping in or playing hooky; i went down to charlottesville for my college graduation ceremony. i actually drove down the day before with my dad to disassemble my bed and load it into the car. i felt kind of bad because he drove two hours, did some manual labor, then drove back 2 hours. oh well, he got a free meal out of it.
the rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking, and reminiscing with old friends whom i hadn't seen in awhile. it's nice to know that i have some friendships that remain (mostly) the same without regard to time and distance. after visiting some of our old haunts (for perhaps the last time? at least for awhile), i went back to my apartment (now bedless) to get some sleep. what i didn't realize was that our normally 4 person apartment was to house 6 people that night. i guess i got lucky because i got to sleep on the loveseat, but it still was far from ideal. also, some nice people decided to party it up right outside our window the night before graduation, so between the lumpy couch and their drunken shenanigans i found it hard to fall (and stay) asleep.
regardless, the morning came and i had a graduation to attend. the night before, i had set my alarm really early to beat the expected shower rush and it paid off. only my roommate was up before me, so we decided to hit up a local diner for breakfast. when we got back, the apt was a flurry of activity with both showers running, hair dryers plugged into hall outlets, people frantically searching for digital camera batteries and of course, caps and gowns being fussed over.
throughout this whole ordeal, i think i did a good job staying levelheaded. maybe it was because i really "graduated" back in december, but i remember being pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. i just wanted it to be over so i could go home and eat a nice meal out with the family. it wasn't until i was standing in a bustling crowd of 6000 of my peers in the shadow of the rotunda's impressive facade that i started to feel a tinge of accomplishment and pride. the previous four years of frozen dinners, studying, procrastinating, late night chinese food, relationship-making, and learning had all led up to this day.
the ceremony itself was a blur. i'm sure the speaker had lots of good things to say, but those words are probably already forgotten by 90% of us. it was supposed to rain (i even brought an umbrella with me), but the clouds parted right as the ceremony started and the sun came out. (enough to give me a mild sunburn) we really couldn't have asked for better weather. (last year's class didn't have it as good, it rained all morning)
here are some pics.
from my econ dept diploma ceremony
brother bear + sister bear
la familia
got my papers, so long suckas!
congrats class of 2010! wahoowa!
