The weirdest part was no one told us anything about how to do it.
Cathy thought that the ceremony began at 9 am. Wrong.
Cathy thought the ceremony would be over by 10:30 am. Wrong.
Luckily we still somehow graduated. We showed up at 9 am and were shuffled into a room. After asking around to friends, we determined that there was a table to find. This table would provide us with a note card. On that card would be our name. This card was the success to graduating. It was this card that you would hand to someone, who would hand it to someone, who would hand it to someone who would read your name out to the audience, so you could walk across the stage.
We managed to make that happen. There was a notation on Cathy's card indicating her Cum Laude honor. Max wanted to take a red pen and add "Optimas Prime" to the beginning of her honors...
We then milled around talking to friends. We got in line with Ross, Corey, Grant, and Weston for the graduation processional. Since everyone had magical note cards, you could sit wherever you saw fit. Everyone was then instructed to form two lines for each college. We were in the practice basketball gym. There was not space for us to form two lines for each college. We proceeded to form two amoebas for each college. It seemed to sit just fine with the mysterious people guiding the day's ceremonies.
We're not sure when it all actually started, but all of a sudden the gym was less full. Since there was no panic indicating a mass alien invasion, this hinted at the option that the processional had started. Soon enough our "line" began to move. There was scrambling, hooting, and hollering as we made our way through the underground of the gym and then stumbled into the gymnasium. There was no warning, no "best faces!" just all of a sudden, a gym!
There were almost enough seats for everyone as the colleges wound through the rows. PhD candidates on the first row, then Masters, then the undergrads began. The Arts & Sciences, then the ENS, then the Business College. They worked from back to front though for the stage-walking portion of the morning.
Cathy - I honestly don't even remember walking across the stage. I handed my name card over and focused on not heading up the stage until I heard said name being read. There were two hands to shake and then a photographer. I tried to ask him a question and was shushed off the stage. Then there was another photographer! And he agreed to take a picture of Max and I together!
First there were all the speakers. The President, Steadman Upham had several words to say. The chaplain said a blessing of some sorts. Then the commencement speaker came to the podium. He graduated from TU with his law degree while Cathy's mom also attended. He then served as a federal judge in the Oklahoma courts for several years. He wasn't the worst speaker in the world. He made some excellent jokes and convinced us that we're all helpless when it comes to the job market. Typical stuff for this day and age. The worst was really the student president. She brought up the fact that though there are 8 billion living people on the planet, there are infinite more dead people just hanging around. She reminded us that we are incredibly insignificant, but should keep on keeping on anyway. It was heart warming, really.
