Saying goodbye kinda sucks...
Well. I've now officially graduated from college. How scary is that, really?? Yes, it's kind of scary. I have no idea what I'm going to do now.
So, four years later, I've finally got a degree (yay!). I'm not all that terribly sad about being done with college, and I really doubt that I will miss it. I can't believe I'm done! It hasn't really sunk in yet.
I have to say, however, that our graduation ceremony was definitely, by far, the shortest I've been to in all four years of being at Ripon graduations. But, it was also the coldest!!! I was frozen for the entire ceremony, because I was silly enough to change into a skirt before I left to line up. This will be henceforth referred to as mistake number one! Then again, the cold did make the speech a lot shorter (at least I think it did!), which was nice. I didn't particularly like the speaker, and I was kinda disappointed that the General didn't say anything. Serves me right for skipping out on Convocation in fall, I guess! :)
The weekend was fun, albeit the receptions and stuff were pretty boring. The fun part was at baccalaureate, which was surprisingly empty!! I remember going with Beth last year and having to squish into a pew just to find a seat, and this year there were empty pews, and we didn't all have to sit on top of each other. I did the prelude to the service on oboe. I had a bunch of people afterwards telling me how beautiful it was - weird was when it was these people I didn't know. But, oh well.
After baccalaureate was Roadwhore with my parents, Andy, Joe and his mom. It was fun! I love Roadhouse. I'm going to miss that, that's for sure! Well, if (i mean when) I go visit Steph and Joe, I'll have to go to Roadhouse. Then we went out to Millers to meet up with Beth, Dana, Matt and a few others. Joe & I got shots for our parents, I did another shot with Beth and Dana, and spent the rest of the night drinking Smirnoff Ice. Seemed fitting, since that's pretty much all I ever drank as a freshman too. Anyway, the night was full of drinking, talking, laughing, playing darts (I'm much better when I'm drunk...I got 5 bullseyes! but we were playing 301. boo). It was good to see all of them, and I'm totally going to miss them. We stayed until bar time around 2:30. I'm sure I said some things I regret (actually, I know that for a fact - damnit! I need to stop talking when I'm drunk), but overall, the night was good. I was sad when it was time to go home, 'cause that's probably the last time we'll all hang out there, if not the last time we'll all hang out again, and that makes me very sad and melancholy. :-( I'm going to miss them all a lot. And who knows when (or if!) I'll see some of them again.
Anyway, so like I said, graduation was really cold. I couldn't complain too much though, because the weather reports the whole week said that it was supposed to be raining, and I was afraid it would be in the gym. That would have sucked hardcore! So I was quite happy when I woke up (albeit I woke up at 6:50am and thought I was going to have a hangover the whole day) and saw that the sun was out. So that was happiness. And I was able to go back to sleep for another two hours and didn't have a hangover when I woke up either, 'cause graduation could have reallllllllllllly sucked if that had been the case. :)
The graduation brunch was hardcore boring. We were able to get some things packed up and stuff afterwards though, so that was good. After the ceremony, and standing around outside taking pictures for only a little bit afterwards, I was out of Ripon by 5pm. That was uber exciting. I made a quick stop at Beth & Dana's, but they weren't there, which was sad.
I think the saddest part of graduation was saying good bye to my friends. I hated saying good bye to Motz, and Christine and Beth and Dana and Matt and Maureen. And the "goodbye, I don't think I'll see you again" really hurt. I know (at least I hope) that it wasn't because said person didn't want to see me, but because our paths are going in drastically different directions. And given the past year, I really wish that wasn't true. And damnit, I should keep my mouth shut when I'm drunk. I missed saying bye to Joe, but hopefully that is because I'll be seeing him soon. I'll be seeing Emily soon, I hope, too! And it was great to see Meredith this weekend.
Sigh. Graduation wasn't nearly as sad as I thought it might be. But then again, I won't be looking back at Ripon with longing any time soon. :) Now, getting out of my house, shit goddamn. That can't happen fast enough!!
- posted by L. @ 11:32 PM