Grad--no, not mine

[silverflight8]

We (the choir) were at the grad ceremonies the day before yesterday--a dressed-up gymnasium at the university for the actual graduation (the dinner at the big convention center).

I confess to being very confused when I was little, because the whole American prom/graduation thing was all over the place, and I thought it was rather strange we didn't have that. (Also, I still don't understand why football is such a big deal; possibly others find the hockey craze madness.) That, or it's TV's usual distorted view.

Still, the solemn line of graduates making their way into the gym, accompanied by soaring music, was the sort of thing that made--excuse me while I dive off the sentimental cliff--me seem desperately proud of my school, and all that. I believe that's the same emotion evoked by the propagandists, too.

I think most of the pieces went off all right, although with the giant microphones and speakers reflecting our voices back at us a split second later was odd, but everyone was seated far enough away that it wouldn't have been obvious.

We have a big school; nearly 600 graduated this year, and they are not the largest class in the school. The individual crossing-of-the-floor took two or three hours; we'd arrived at 7:30am, started at 9:00, and I got home at almost one.

My favorite part, though, was when the graduates started to leave. The parents, sitting on the bleachers of the gym, were a mass of different colours and clothing, but the grads were dressed one and all in solid blue gowns. When they began making their way up the bleachers, it looked almost as though there was blue ink running uphill through a morass of patterns and colours.