Graduation

Well, it’s official, I am a college graduate.  I got my Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts last night, aka the degree for those of us who had no idea what we wanted to major in.  The ceremony was nice.  It was very long, though, it went until 9:30pm and it started at 7:30pm.  It was a bit calmer than my high school graduation.  People were loud, but everyone was quiet while the speeches were taking place.  In high school, everyone talked and screamed through the speeches.  At this one, we didn’t have very many speeches.  Just the college president, state assemblywoman, and one of the students.  During graduation practice, someone announced that there weren’t going to be any long speeches and everyone started cheering.

The worst part was having to stand outside the building for 45 minutes until we started the procession.  It was chilly and rainy, but that’s to be expected.  It rained during my high school one, too.  Heck, there was a major flood just a few days after my high school graduation.  But once we were inside it was nice.  People were throwing beach balls around and they had a bunch of balloons that got dropped at the end.  There was a group of people playing the bag pipes as we left the building.

Graduation practice on the other hand was not nearly as fun.  First, I had to drive to the nearby city (my dad drove during the actual graduation) and I hadn’t really driven downtown before.  I managed to find the place, but then had to park in a parking garage.  Not something I want to do again anytime soon.  I drove in and had to pull a ticket out of a machine, but I couldn’t reach it.  I had to unbuckle and lean out the window to get the ticket.  Then when practice was over it took me over 10 minutes to get out of the garage, and then I had to pay $2 to get out.  I’ll take winding country roads any day over city driving, thank you very much.

I don’t have my actual diploma yet.  It’s going to come in the mail sometime in July after they’re sure I’ve met all the requirements for graduation.