Graduation Day

Well, today is one of those special days. Today York is going to let me graduate from my undergraduate program and I will officially have an Honours Bachelor of Science degree with a major in chemistry and a minor in physics. Today the chapter containing all the hard work I put in over the last 5 years (as well as all the slacking and worrying I did) will be brought to a close. Today I will attend a long and boring ceremony (after 2 boring hours of waiting around in the robe rental line and marshalling area) for the sake of getting to the point where the Chancellor will say "admittis vos ad graduam" or some such thing (my Latin is very rusty...haven't touched it since OAC, or maybe even grade 12) and the president of the university will say "you may now place your hood on your shoulders." Yes, all the Bachelor and Master graduates have to hood themselves; I watched a group of them doing this in last year's video and it was a funny sight...the whole class seemed to be fumbling around and asking each other, "Do you know how to put this on? Does it look alright? Let's see, I guess I put my arm through here...oh, maybe not..." Today I get to be one of those fumbling people, though I am promising myself that I will figure out proper hooding procedure before the ceremony starts so that I will get to savour the moment that that hood descends on my shoulders when it comes. When the ceremony is over, I'll get my photo taken by my parents (so we'll have some cheaply-reproducible photos for the extended family and won't have to pay an arm and a leg for the studio grad photos York had us do earlier in the year), return my robe, pick up my degree, get it framed, get my photo taken again with the framed degree (I really want a photo of myself with the framed degree and my robe/hat/etc., but you don't get to have both at the same time 'cuz York wants to make sure they get their robes back), eat snacks at the reception, maybe connect with some of my old profs and classmates (and reserach groupmates? I doubt any but those who are also graduating will be there), and get outta there. I think most of the day will be boring, but I'm not going to not attend (though you can still get your degree without attending); I am going for the sake of the two moments I mentioned above, and because it's the thing to do (and for the ceremonial chapter-ending feel of the thing), and because it's the thing to do for family (yes, making them sit through a long and boring ceremony is the thing to do, I keep telling myself).

Then in September I will go back to school, and then in June I get to graduate again (assuming I successfully complete the B.Ed. program I'm taking this coming school year, but I see no reason why I shouldn't)...fun fun fun.

I'm off for now; hopefully I will have pictures to share later.