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Diaryland
Pomp and Circumstance May 28, 2005 @ 7:20 a.m.
Well, I made it. By some miracle, I made it.
There are still a few things left to wrap up with school. Kate and I are gonna consult back and forth over emails about my pieces for Project Censored. I never heard back from Police and Parking Services about the ticket I appealed, admitedly very late. They will probably send me a letter in the mail saying something to the effect of !@#$ you, we want money, and we won't let you graduate until you give us more of that. If that isn't enough, I was 5 minutes late for the deadline in checking out of the dorms, and the checkout forms, which I figured were largely the same as last year, revealed to me at the 11th hour that they were gonna fine anyone who checked out late $100. Such, such bullshit. That's like 2 or 3 paychecks of mine. If they try to make me pay that for being 5 minutes late, blood will flow. Or at least white-out.
I can't believe all the beaurocrap I've had to deal with to get out of the university. You know, Alan didn't just kick out Greg, it turns out. He kicked the rest of us out too - which is just shitty for Liam and Steve because they have more semesters on campus lined up, and Steve was gonna take summer classes. No warning at all - just out. Fucking ridiculous. I was really, really tempted to put a curse on Alan, but these things always have a way of coming back to bite you in the ass. I even considered some simple karmic speedups to put him in the same situation, but I would also have to anticipate being brought to justice for all MY faults in a very short window, so for now he gets off with lots of yelling from me. In retrospect though, I really don't know how effective I was. Not that I'm against yelling when in such situations, but I was so made that I couldn't properly enunciate for the first few sentences, and that's probably what he'll remember. Not any of his bullshit or the frustrations he caused any of us or how mad I was. Just my inability to form coherent sentences. God hold him accountable.
Graduation was largely a lot of hot air - even hotter because we were stuck in black nylon gowns. The student speaker was ok, but she sounded at points more like she was trying to convince herself than us. The student body president gave a very cliched speech, but he started crying near the end when talking about meeting his roomates and falling in love and getting engaged. He got a well deserved "awwwww" for that. The staff speaker was some kind of dean of beaurocrap that was retiring after 35 years of dilbertwork. His speech certainly sounded like something that came out of one of Dogbert's prefabricated leader-speak programs... just a bunch of meaningless, hypocritical bullshit, complemented with a healthy amount of patting one's self on the back for molding the next generation into your boring image. The weather was great though - there was a nice wind up so the sunlight didn't get too bad, and the trees were billlowing in the wind in that way they were at the end of Phenomenon. I ended up watching them and feeling more comforted than with the speakers at several points. The sky was cloudless, only occasionaly pierced by a hawk or two. I felt kind of bad for the parents and other guests, because I didn't get to see them until the end of the ceremony. They herded us around like cows towards the slaughter somehow diverted through the rose parade. And they forbade anyone cheering or clapping for people until the end.
Naturally, you can imagine that there were frequent points where we completely ignored the instructions. I ended up sitting with Serene, Lila, Sean and curiously enough, all the Women's and Gender Studies majors. They were having a good old time though - they painted intersex symbols on their grad hats, wore flower bouquets, and were passing around an airplane size bottle of bacardi during the worst of the ceremonies. My garb was remarkably plain, with the exception of our white...excuse me, CREAM... colored tassel for Social Sciences, and my big red project censored ribbon medalion. I may have been the only person who was actually wearing it around my neck in that way in the entire crowd...I found one or two other PC people, but they hadn't undone the little tie wrap and had just pinned it to their gowns. I probably should have down that - when the wind came up, the thing was blowing up in my face, and I eventually had to figure out a way to pin it to my gown.
So anyway, I think one of the biggest things you get out of graduation, admist the pomp and circumstance and cliches and hypocrisy, is not so much what to remember to do and be, but what to remember NOT to do and be. Seeing that whole vanity fair only just reinforced my conviction that real living, success and happiness will be achieved in a vastly different way than the manner they try to instill in you all through your childhood.
Childhood...frustrating and fun while it lasted. Oh well, on to the next stage.
PS: I couldn't help but wonder... does my diary sound too much like a Sex and the City episode?
"Details in the Fabric" - May 31, 2009
Not So Quick Questions - April 6, 2009
The Morning Stars - Lords of the 15 - April 9, 2009
Sincerity and Faith in Magic - April 10, 2009
Not So Quick Questions (2) - April 14, 2009
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