Well, this was my first year of high school. My last day is June 8th. It was tough, but I found a lot of support from the upperclass, especially the Seniors. Tonight was commencement. I didn’t think I was going to be as sad as I was. All these people are leaving that I only had a year to get to know, and others are leaving I have known most of my life. Such finality. I’m never going to see these people together again. The scary thought is in 3 short years that’s going to be me up there, with the class of 2003, for the last time. All this has made me wonder about any doper graduation ceremonies gone awry, or other incidents that you have witnessed at commencements. Any good stories out there?
My entire family sang the Hallelujah chorus from the bleachers when I was handed my diploma. The best part was seeing the rest of the on-lookers gazing to right and left and up in the air to see where the sounds were coming from.
At my HS graduation, you weren’t allowed to cheer or clap or holler (or sing) when an individual student’s name was called; you had to wait until the end. They actually escorted people from the auditorium if they did, and the student didn’t get their diploma until a week later. I understand what they were trying to do, but it was still overkill.
When I was in high school, there was a curious shift going on. The class that graduated when I was a freshman was very conservative, and the class standing was fair, but nothing special. Each subsequent class had a higher academic standing, and individual students got more and better honors, in the way of scholarships and competitions, but each class also became more irreverent and pulled more pranks. When my class graduated, we had a very high academic standing, and the class was packed with achievers. But…
With a few exceptions, the guys wore jams under their robes and the girls wore minis and patterned tights. I wore a black-on-white polka dot stretch mini and black lace tights. During the speeches, a beach ball, TP rolls, and finally a blow-up doll were batted around. The commencement speaker quoted The Cure. Class of '88, baby.
You have time yet. There’s new people every year from now on.
The graduation day itself is actually a letdown. Don’t hold it in too great awe. The excitement is in the last weeks before.
One thing I remember clearly is that our top two students, the shared valedictorians, married the next day, divorced by the end of summer, and neither went on to college or even left town. That one puzzled us for years, but they split from everyone who did leave town, and we never found out the deatails.
Well, Scarlet, I’m surprised that no one sang it for a few of our Seniors. There were quite a few “shockers” that graduated, and they seemed to get the most applause and cheers, but no Halleluja’s came from the rafters.
That’s weird Thisyearsgirl. Everyone would have been thrown out of commencement if that had been the rule. The only thing that happened even remotely similar to the no cheers (or songs) rule was the band was told it couldn’t play the fight song for the drum major.
Rilchiam, our classes have sort of been that way in way of honors, but it seems to do an “every other year” sort of thing. The seniors this year didn’t fare to poorly, the juniors are huge slackers, the sophomores aren’t too bad, but my class of freshmen is pretty shabby.
Oncle Beire, the ceremony was kind of a let down, and the weeks leading up to it were memorable. What a crazy thing to happen with your validictorians. That’s something else.
Any more stories out there?
I can’t tell this story without misting up a bit. . .
I had to change schools just before my senior year, so I didn’t get to know many people in my graduating class. One of the students I did get to know was a girl who had hearing problems. She was entirely deaf in both ears, and she couldn’t use hearing aids. Everywhere she went she had to have an interpreter translate things into sign language.
At my old school, this would have been a disaster. She would have been ostracized, laughed at, picked on . . . driven to tears, as I was driven to tears almost daily. I was a smart, overweight kid who hated sports. That was bad enough. I shudder to think what this girl would have gone through in my place.
But in this school, there was nothing like that. I was treated with respect . . . and this girl, who would have been a freak at my old school, was a normal human being treated just like everyone else. She had friends all over the place, many of whom made efforts to learn sign language just so they could talk to her directly. She never had any problems getting help on her assignments and scored solid grades in all her classes. Even math . . . and can you imagine how hard a job that must have been?
The week before commencement, her friends got together and passed around a flyer to all the graduating seniors. On it were a few simple instructions and a single “word” in sign language. When graduation day finally arrived, everyone had seen the flyer, and we were all prepared.
When her name was called and she stepped up to receive her diploma, everyone in the gym, every student, every parent, everyone-- over a thousand people-- stood up, and silently waved their hands over their head.
In sign language, this means “applause.”
– Sylence
Neat story, Sy.
Amazingrace, I don’t know the details of your life, but I can tell you that I graduated from high school 29 years ago and I am in regular contact with many people I knew in high school, older, younger and of my same class.
And, as somebody pointed out above, each passing year brings more new people into your life.