Graduation

Finally! A Graduation Blog! Graduation day (June 8th 2007) was absolutely insane! So much happened, it just wouldn’t be fair to try to describe it. Soooooooo . . . I used my new video camera to make a little movie that covers the day’s events. The first video is the time spent leading up to graduation, and before you skip it because you think it’ll be boring, just know that you’ll be skipping night vision, grand theft auto, high speed chases, and near deadly senior antics in the middle of the street.



Didn’t that look like fun?! Ok, after our screaming at cars experience, we ran back over to the line we had been waiting in for 3 and a half hours so we could be let into the stadium. In case you didn’t catch it from the video, seating on the field is first come first serve, and if you have a specific spot in mind, you need to get their early to nab it.

The gate to the field was supposed to open at 8, but come 8:05 it still hadn’t opened. Everybody was getting antsy and we were ready to go. Soon they opened the gate, but we still weren’t allowed to go in because they were letting the kids with disabilities in first (so that they could have seats near the front). There were two teachers and our head security officer (Mr. Tomlin) at the gate, and another security guy farther up the line. While the security guy farther up the line was telling everybody not to move the chairs and to not break anything when they ran to get their seats, Trevor, Dylan, and I were poised to begin the sprint for our seats. The only problem is that we didn’t know who was going to say go or when it was going to happen, so we were getting nervous. Then, Mr. Tomlin walks by me and as he walked by he leaned over and whispered into my ear “Run Snively, just run!” That was all it took! I clapped Dylan on the shoulder and yelled “Let’s go!” and we booked it. I mean, seriously, we’d never run that fast ever! Dylan, Trevor, and I were the first to the seats and we dumped our stuff all over an entire row (to save it for more friends who were farther back in line). That was it, we were ready for rehearsal to begin. I’ll spare you the bore of rehearsal, but I will say that instead of marching in to “Pomp and Circumstance” we marched in to the “Imperial March” from Star Wars. That was SO cool! After rehearsal it was time to go home, entertain some family who came to graduation, get dressed and head off to graduate. That’s where this next video comes in.

Before we start, however, I’d like to mention another tradition at our school. The seniors sneak inflatable beach balls into commencement every year so that we have something to play with between all the speeches and name calling. This year was no exception. When you enter staging for commencement they make you give them your cap and gown, which they proceed to shake. They then check you for any visible bulges. If you’re clean then you get to put our gown on and wait to graduate. I found about a gazillion ways around this system, and thus managed to get 9 beach balls and 2 inflatable dolphin rafts into graduation. The 9 beach balls were on my person, smashed flat under some Under Armor shorts and some baggy khaki pants. The dolphin smuggling was a bit more covert. There was no way to sneak them in on me, so I had to organize a hand-off. The graduates walk right by the band on the way to their seats, so I gave a percussionist a small packaged that contained two dolphins, wrapped in masking tape. As we marched by he just pulled it out of the cymbal bag, held it under the roped off area, and Dylan grabbed it, hid it under his robes, and got it all the way to our seats. If you watch in the next video, towards the end of the processional clip, you can see a percussionist look back at us to make sure we’re coming. It was a beautiful thing! Enjoy the next video (it's long, and streams from CCTV. I talk at 23:00)

Graduation Video

So that was graduation, it was a blast! The one bit of advice I have for everybody graduating is to have fun and not be stiff. Graduation happens once, never regret what you do or don’t do during it.