Lessons learned

Well, there you go. I am now officially a York alumna. The ceremony actually wasn't nearly as excruciating as I'd expected, as it moved quicker than I had thought it was going to, up to the point where it was my turn to cross the stage and shake everyone's hand (once I was seated again after that my fellow chem majors couldn't wait for the ceremony to be over and continually used the program to figure out how many more people had to cross the stage and how much longer we had to wait..."Okay, we're on the third column on page 63 now" etc.). The speaker to receive his honorary doctorate at our ceremony was a Dr. Ling who apparently made a great breakthrough in the cure for cancer, and what I could hear of his introduction and speech (my group was in a bad spot for hearing stuff) was actually pretty interesting. I was also very interested to see that both the Chancellor and this guy made references to God in their remarks--God at university? Really? Hooray! Even the two-hour pre-ceremony prep period wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected; I arrived at the gown rental area early and was in the first group to do our pick-ups once that area opened for business, and the procedure was pretty quick. When I got to the marshalling area, I was able to see friends in three different groups (math majors--including two friends who had been fellow "I want to be a teacher" people in my early math classes, one of whom got into York's concurrent education program and one who didn't get into that program and decided not to teach in the long run--physics majors and chem majors) and kept moving between the three groups until more people arrived and we had to get serious about being in the right place according to the numbers on our name cards. Oh, guess what number I was? 123! I thought that was really funny but noone else seemed to get it. Oh well.

I'm still in learning mode (and likely will be for the rest of my life...that's one of the marks of a teacher, after all), and I learned some things from all that transpired yesterday. I am making plans now for my final graduation ceremony (that I have planned at this point, anyway) that will occur when I (D.V.) graduate with my B.Ed. next year. Here are some things that will happen:

1. Martin will have the day off, not just my dad, so that there will be no worry about whether everyone will be able to find each other and/or arrive on time.
2. I and all attending on my behalf will have a good-sized lunch (not necessarily together)prior to the ceremony (depending on the timing of the ceremony, "lunch" may be a different meal, but whatever) so that we are not starving by the end of the ceremony and only interested in hitting a restaurant.
3. All attending on my behalf but Martin will be free to leave once we have taken the usual daughter-and-parents/wife-and-husband/etc. photos of me in my academic regalia; if they are starving, they can hit a restaurant on their own. I will be sticking around to enjoy at least some of the reception (including some of the reception food and refreshments) and congratulate/mingle with fellow grads, faculty, etc. (assuming I build relationships enough with my fellow B.Ed. students and faculty next year to care about doing so). If Martin is starving and won't be appeased by reception food, I guess he can leave with my other guests, though I will be more lonely at the reception if that is the case.
4. I will host a dinner and/or party in honour of my final (planned at this point) graduation either the next day or the weekend following my graduation. Family and friends will all be invited, including those who were unable to attend my graduations due to the four-guests-per-graduand limit. Everyone will be free to come and leave as they choose (well, if people arrive in the middle of any sit-down meal, that could be an issue, but otherwise), including those who feel party time is over when the meal is over; I will still have friends who know the party ain't over sticking around to continue to celebrate with me. Maybe I will have a BBQ, maybe I will plan dinner at a restaurant and have everyone back to the house afterwards, who knows; we'll have to see. But we will celebrate, darn it. Feel free to R.S.V.P. now and I'll make sure you're on the guest list ;).

Lest you be alarmed by the list above, I did enjoy a lot of yesterday; there were just some things that could have gone better (and there were some things that upset me). Next year will be better. It has to be. As in school, so in life: live and learn.