Five years and thousands of dollars later, they still get my name wrong

Did you hear the distant rumbling on Saturday? It was faint, but it was distinct. It was the world changing.

Well my world at least.

As of two days ago, I’m officially a college graduate. No more going to class with out showering, no more counting pudding as a balanced meal, no more pretending that I know what I’m talking about for 20 or more pages.

No more.

People are often asking me if I walked. I did. It was an interesting experience.

They one email I did get about stuff (way back in February, thanks guys) said we were supposed to gather on the quad at 8:30. I may be perpetually late for class, but for work and meetings and stuff I deem important, I’m usually pretty punctual. I rocked up about twenty after. There were maybe 50 people there, only 3 at the spot for the College of Science.

On another note, it was really cold, windy and snowed a little. Those robes are not insulated at all and have no pockets. Basically everyone just stood around and wished their hands weren’t so cold.

It was about this time I realized I had to pee. Not a big deal. I figured I’ve had to pee during most of the important events in my life so far, why should my college graduation be in different?

"It shouldn’t" is the firm answer my bladder gave me.

As more and more people started to show up, I noticed that I didn’t know any of them. I was concerned why I was the only computer science major on the field. Was there a special graduation for us online? Was there some major project that was due in a few hours that I had completely forgotten? Was there a LAN party in the CS labs that I didn’t get invited to?

Eventually I just relaxed and realized that most computer science majors were in that particular field so that they wouldn’t have to walk through nature, especially when it’s cold, windy or early.

We then walked across campus to the Spectrum for the commencement ceremony.

I don’t know why I was so nervous walking that sidewalk I’d traveled many times before, I think it had something to do with the fact that I’d never worn a pointy hat and dress in front of that many people before.

This year BYU had Vice President Dick Cheney for their commencement speaker. We had a reverend from Salt Lake. Not as famous but a lot less controversial. He did a good job, talking a lot about the opportunities and responsibilities we will have in the future to share our time, talents and treasure with the community.

He later specified that the latter meant sometimes donating to the university when they called and asked for money.

I think they told him to say that.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to make this observation but as I was sitting there, I couldn’t help but notice that the higher ups on the stand kinda looked like wizards in their colorful robes and funny hats and all.

I also thought they looked like high ranking KKK members, but I figured, “you look like you can turn me into a frog,” would go over better than “You look like you hate black people.”

All in all, I’m glad I did it.

The commencement thing, the jury’s still out on college. We’ll see how this whole grown up life deal turns out.