After long thought, I decided to attend my graduation commencement a couple weeks ago. But when I made this decision, I decided that I would only do it under my terms. I wasn’t going to invite everyone just for the sake of doing so, and I wasn’t going to make a gigantic deal out of it. So I invited my mom, my brother, my aunt & uncle, and my best friend and her family, and left my sister out of the invitation rounds, choosing not to tell her at all that I was going to do it. I thought it would be better than saying to her, yeah I’m doing it but you can’t go because I don’t like you.
We also decided to do a small casual dinner with everyone afterwards at my favorite restaurant, but nothing major. My friend’s family decided not to go to this part so it was mostly my family and everyone told stories of their graduation, as one might expect to find at such a party. I decided since I was going ahead and doing it that I would go all out, so not only have a little dinner, but I also got graduation pictures taken, I went and got a nice outfit that could be used to graduate as well as pictures and interviews in the future. I ordered said pictures, and will order my walking pictures as well, both of which are very abnormal for me. And I went through all the crap to get a cap & gown and what not, I will likely be donating to my school at some point of my life, but I want to wait until I have more of an income before I do that.
The commencement itself was fine. My friend had a friend who was also graduating who invited me to sit next to her, which I did and was glad she invited me because otherwise I would have felt much more alone for the whole thing. I got to talking with some guy who was sitting next to me as well and had a fairly good time throughout. Scott Van Pelt was the special speaker. It was kind of odd, I didn’t feel he represented me at all as I don’t know who he is in particular, he had references to cartoons I’ve barely seen, and jokes targeted at a younger and different crowd. He definitely was not a speaker intended for me, but at the same time he did a fairly good job and had a couple good jokes to tell and interesting stories on how he got to become an ESPN anchor in the first place.
The whole ceremony itself went rather well, and I think it will turn out well in my life that I did choose to go to this, but for now I am a bit torn on whether it was all worth the time and money that it cost.
4 replies on “Commencement”
As the mother of two college graduates and one senior in college, I can tell you that you did the right thing. Just ask your mother. I’m sure she’s proud of you and your accomplishment and feels elated that she could attend the event. Sometimes we have to do things for someone else’s benefit. Oops, I think I’m sounding like a parent.
As for you, in the future you’ll be glad that you participated even though you may not see the value of it now.
Well I realize fully that this is an event that family tend to like, especially parents. However, it seems to me that this particular event is one of the few in my life that is actually mine. My roommate helped with homework at times, and helped financially support me. But outside of that throughout my college career I made an extra point to ensure that my education was something that was done by me for me. Not something forced by a parent, or even paid by a parent. My mom did very little to support me through college…
That being said, I know she was proud, but the event has to be worthwhile to me first and foremost. At the end of the day, the entire reason behind doing it was so that I don’t regret not… I see very little chance that I will completely regret doing it, even if not inviting my sister causes a lasting rift in the family.
Hmmm. This is a situation in which I didn’t have sufficient information and erroneously responded out of my own experience and perception. As I get older, however, I’ve discovered it’s the things that I don’t do that I regret because it’s too late to go back and do them later.
Agree with ya there.