now! It is weird for such a large phase of my life to be over. I've been a college student for a long time, and a student for even longer. (Left - the mass of graduates. My hat is circled) So where does that leave me? College graduation is supposed to be this huge life altering thing, right? But I'm stuck answering the same question over and over, "Now what?" and I don't have an answer yet.But, I really don't want to sound so depressed about it. I'm really not, today has just been an odd day. I woke up really early this morning so I could have breakfast and get ready in time for my graduation. It started at 8am, but that meant that I had to be there at 7am. That is why I feel really tired right now. I didn't get to sleep until late last night, and I woke up early. But, I made it. In fact, I made it at just the right time because the long
got really long just after I got there.First, we had to sit in bleachers. (Right - walking across to get my diploma) I was a little disappointed, thinking that was going to be our seat for the rest of the ceremony (it was a really crappy seat) but they just used it to line us up for the processional. At the beginning, we walked down to our seats. Being in the Linguistics Department, I was in one of the last groups, so I was on the second to last row, toward the end of that row. I was worried that my cousins (Adam and Betsy) who came to my graduation, would have to leave before they even saw me walk across the stage. I knew they had to leave around 9:30 so Adam could be to work.
The
program was really interesting. They started by having the graduates stand up for different things: if they served a mission, spoke a second language, had lived outside of the US, were originally from another country, etc. (Above - BYU graduate in front of Y mountain) It was interesting to see. The majority of the 500 something Humanities students had served a mission, spoke at least a second language, and had lived outside of the US.After that, we had some speakers before we began the giving of the diplomas. I was close to the back, so it took a while to get to me. As I was walking across the stage, Professor Hart (who had greeted the Russian graduates, I was with the Linguistics graduates because that was my primary major) stood up to congratulate me. I got
my diploma and continued on. No one clapped for me... Heather and Erin said they were so intent on getting it right that they forgot to clap. (Above - me and my sisters: Elizabeth, Becky, me, and Sara) Betsy told me that Daniel clapped and say Yay Yay! as I walked across the stage. So, I had one person cheering for me!It wasn't long after that before the program was over. As we were walking outside, a lot of the faculty was lined up along the sides, including most of my Russian professors (in fact, only two weren't there) and one of my Linguistics professors. I said bye to Professor Melby (Linguistics) first. He hugged me again. I guess I was a really good student and he's going to miss me. Then I went over to my Russian professors. Professors Purves, Kelly, Lundberg, and Hart were there (I had all of them this semester except for Mark Purves). I shook their hands, one of them calle
d me their star student (I got another comment from a student about my accomplishments in Russian, so I'm wondering if I got some award that I never heard about?). (Above - me and my grandparents) Professor Lundberg told me that my senior paper was really good. Professor Hart asked me what I'm doing now, but I didn't have an answer. He said to keep them posted.I headed out, and met up with my friends and family. My grandparents came down from Brigham City (I wonder how early they had to get up to come?), Adam and Betsy had to leave so I didn't see them, but Becky, Elizabeth, Sara, Heather, and Erin were there. All the important
people came to my graduation. (Below - me and Erin and Heather). We took pictures, Heather and Erin gave me flowers and a card, my grandparents gave me a card (Adam and Betsy had given me a graduation present/card the night before) before they had to leave to get Andy (my cousin) to the airport. We took some more pictures before heading back to my apartment to regroup and decide where to go for lunch. By the way, I was really surprised that people gave me things. I was just glad that they came to my graduation. I don't care about gifts or things like that, a much better present is just showing up.We decided to go somewhere we never had before for lunch.
We looked in the phone book, and Heather read the name The Jerk Shack: Authentic Jamaican Food Restaurant. (Left - Heather and Erin bowing down to me - Hail the graduate!) Well, that was the winner from the start. We thought we knew where it was located, but when we went there, it turned out that we were wrong. Erin called information and asked for an address for the Jerk Shop (oops!), we quickly corrected her. At the end of the call, Erin made sure the guy knew we were looking for a Jamaican restaurant.Sara had to be to work soon after, so after eating, Becca (sorry! I keep forgetting that she doesn't want to be called Becky anymore) took Sara to work and we all went back to
my apartment and played a game before Becca left for work.After that, Heather, Erin, Elizabeth, and I went shopping. (Right - in front of the BYU sign: The world really is my campus now!) We went to the distribution center, Deseret Book, and the Dollar Tree. I was starting to get really tired, so I went out to the car while Heather and Erin shopped. During that time, Sara called Elizabeth and told me that apparently my grandpa (the one who came to my graduation) was in the hospital. My cousin Brittney called to see if we knew anything about it. Later, I called her to see if she had found out more. He is in the Provo hospital. He fell down a flight of stairs when they went to pick up Andy. He blacked out for 10 minutes and when they got him to the hospital, they discovered that he had two spots where he was bleeding on the brain. They don't know if the black out caused the fall, or was caused by the fall.
That is kind of why my day hasn't ended on as high of a note as it began. (Left - At the Jerk Shack!) Still, I am glad to be a college graduate, even if "this is probably the worst time to be graduating in 2-3 decades" (Professor Melby said that).
