Alright, so. I'm officially a high school graduate, so that's cool. I graduated a month ago yesterday, and it was such a surreal process, I don't even fully remember all of it. I remember getting up really early to straighten my hair and do my makeup really nicely in a last-ditch effort to impress peers I'll probably never see again (if I'm lucky). Then my best friend/neighbor came over and we took a few pictures before driving off to get our other friend who lives across the divided highway in our town. We all then drove to school and took a shuttle bus from the elementary school where we students had to park to the high school, where our ceremony was to be held in the gymnasium because of the threat of rain that day, (it never ended up raining but thank God we were indoors because we all got outside after the ceremony and it was effing HOT). We all had to go to the lower level of the school and line up alphabetically up and down the hallways, and we seemed to wait like that forever. After a decade and a half of anxious chatter and cap adjustments, we finally got to process into the gym. From there, we found our seats and proceeded to sit through 3 hours of redundant speeches. Our principal that no one really likes apparently gave the same speech she gave the previous year, and the valedictorian's speech made me want to vomit a little bit because of how subtly condescending it was. And don't even get me started on the guest speaker, who fully admitted to have never done something like that in his life and blatantly didn't even attempt to write a speech. But anyway. I digress. Somewhere between getting our diplomas and tossing our caps, someone started tossing blow-up beach balls and an inflatable flamingo, and everyone loved it except the administrators but there was nothing they could do at that point. After that settled down, we all stood up, moved our tassels from right to left, and tossed our caps haphazardly into the air, which the administrators also didn't like but again, could do nothing about. Which was probably the best part about graduation, the realization that as soon as we got our diplomas, we were free of the public education system. We had no one left to dictate to us exactly what to learn and what to do and how to be. It was so weird, but also long overdue.
That night after graduation, the PTO sponsored an All-Night Grad Party at the local recreation center, and it was actually so much fun. We had access to the indoor pool, there was catering from literally every popular restaurant in our area, karaoke, gambling for raffle tickets, game show simulations, nail/hair/massage salon, candy bar, photo booth, volley ball, basketball, mini car racing, a magic show, huge and expensive raffle prizes, and this thing that's a cross between surfing and a mechanical bull. You had to be there... It was such a great way to spend the hours between 11 PM and 4:30 AM after graduation. I'm really grateful that the parents involved at our school pay more attention to us than our admin. It was also a really fun way to spend time with my peers before everyone splits up for good. Thanks to social media, I'll be able to keep up with people, but it definitely won't be the same. In some ways that's a good thing, but in other ways it's not because I am definitely going to miss people. Especially after I took the time to realize a good chunk of my friends are going to college out of state..
Speaking of college, I know where I'm going! I guess I'll let you in on the secret - I'm going to the College of William and Mary, and I absolutely cannot wait. I've been talking back and forth with my roommate, whom I have not met yet but she seems really cool and she's also from Egypt so that's cool. I've already planned out which classes I want to take and which clubs I want to sign up for and I'm just so excited to get started. I went to a New Students/Parents reception today at an alumni's house, and it was really informative because some current students were there and they answered all of our questions and were super nice and friendly. They also had W&M themed sugar cookies, and that always leads to good things. I'm about a month away from move-in day and orientation, and even though I'm a little nervous about leaving home, I am SO INCREDIBLY PUMPED to get started with the College Experience.
Hopefully I'm not so incompetent that I actually remember to chronicle it here.
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| My friends from homeroom shortly before the ceremony |
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