Graduation Observations

I went to the high school graduation for my daughter’s school yesterday. She doesn’t graduate until next year but many of her friends graduated yesterday – so I decided to go. Most graduations are pretty boring to me so I found myself sitting there making silly observations such as:

1. My area must be pretty diverse – there was a good percentage of African, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Latino names in the graduation program.

2. Reading through the program reminded me that Black folks sure have a “unique” way of naming their children. (I’ll say no more on that subject.)

3. People don’t really dress up to attend graduations anymore. Although the graduation was held at a church, most people were dressed like they were on their way to a picnic.

4. Nobody seems to really pay attention to any of the graduation speeches. That’s really a shame for the speakers.

5. Although the principal said that they would announce a name every 3 seconds to expedite the process (which meant that it should have taken only 21 minutes to call the 423 names) they actually averaged 5 – 6 seconds so it took twice that amount of time. Of course that is the most boring part of a graduation.

6. Although the principal asked that no one use air horns or any other noise-makers during the ceremony, there were 3 or 4 hardheads in the audience.

While I think that graduations are generally very boring – I always get sentimental and cry during the ceremony. Hearing Pomp and Circumstance just does something to me. The most significant observation of the night was that most all of the family and friends in attendance were generally happy and excited.

There was a look of pure joy on the faces of people as they took photos, cheered for their loved ones and just sat waiting to hear their graduates’ names. Watching that excitement actually made my boredom wane. This was the first of what will hopefully be many educational milestones in the lives of the Class of 2008.