Before
I’ve been pretty busy these past couple of weeks between studying, finals week, preparing for graduation, and making sure everything is in line for my internship to begin next week. Thankfully finals week is over, graduation day is here, and everything for my internship is set (I think).
It’s really hard to believe that today is my commencement for my undergraduate degree. Four years ago, I was preparing to graduate high school and writing my valedictorian speech. (Glad I don’t have to do that again!)
Let me be honest, as I’ve told many people, I feel like I’m lying to the world when I say I’m graduating because I still have to complete my internship so I’ll walk now and receive my actual degree later. And maybe this is my own way of being in denial that I’m graduating because really, it doesn’t feel real.
The hardest part of this whole process may have been figuring out how I wanted to decorate my cap, if at all. I went through pages of Pinterest finds, asked friends and family for help, and finally with a little inspiration from all of the above came up with something of my own. I was thinking at first that I wanted to go clever, witty, and funny, but this ended up completely cheesy and more on the “inspirational” side, oh well.
I feel like the rest of this process has been pretty painless. The whole cap and gown pick up was simple. My gown is all nice and ironed thanks to my mom!
And now I just have to walk across the stage and then DONE. Okay, the fact there this is no “practice” for this thing is kind of freaking me out. I like to know what I have to do and how to do it and be fully prepared. That’s not happening in this situation. We get a run down right before, and as I said, this worries me. It can’t be that hard though, right?!
After
Well, it’s all over. I’m an alumni of SVSU (pending the completion of my internship, of course).
Still doesn’t feel real.
So the whole process was really easy. Although I will say those instructions that we were supposed to receive as far as what to do, yeah, never happened. It was a big game of follow the leader. The commencement information said that I was required to be there at 6 p.m., an hour and a half before the ceremony began. And let me tell ya, that was a slow hour and a half. I can only imagine it went by even slower for Matt and my family that were sitting and waiting for it all to begin. We finally started to line up at 7 p.m. and at this point, with still zero instruction, I was slightly concerned. Like I said, the processional, walking across the stage and back to our seats, and the recessional, I just followed the person in front of my and thankful that I wasn’t the one in front!
I wasn’t a huge fan of the ceremony being so late. It was dark by the time we were done, not great lighting for pictures. So, while my parent’s headed home with my two youngest siblings, Matt and I went out for dinner at Harvey’s in Bay City. Fried pickles, a burger, and a couple drinks, perfect way to end the day.
I’ve come a LONG way in the last four years. I’ve grown up a lot and made some necessary and positive changes. I am confident in saying that I’m perfectly content with where I am in this life, so, here’s to celebrating this graduation and looking forward to working towards the next!
