Graduation
“Kick ass.”
We were lining up for graduation and I was on deck to give the class speech. Dr. Snyder pulled me aside and told me about a speech she was supposed to give that had rattled her nerves. Her professor pulled her aside and told her to whisper “kick ass” as she walked up to the microphone.
As the hooding ceremony started, I took my seat on stage as the Class President. The lights blinded out most of the crowd, but I could make out a few faces. Gil. Doug. Jessica. Emily. I smiled and shook my head in disbelief. Here. Finally. I looked up into the lights. “Take it all in,” I told myself. “Remember this!”
My name got called. It was time to give the speech I had thought about giving for two years. Dr. Snyder was sitting to my right. “Well, ‘kick ass’ Dr. Snyder,” I said as I rose from my seat.
I walked up to the podium nervously tugging at the sleeve of my gown. Finally I grasped the Red Bull I had hidden in it, popped it open, and got started. Some of the families in the “cheap seats” thought it was a beer, but anyone who had been around the program for the past two years knew exactly what it was.
My voice quivered as I started. Jordan told me later, “Oh man… I didn’t know if you were going to make it all the way through! There’s a lot of speech left!” My voice grew. The structure. The storytelling. The thanksgiving.
As I finished, I saw my classmates stand and applaud. “I love you guys so much!” I wanted to scream. The ceremony continued. Prof. Veness hooded me. I made my way down to my seat, careful not to look back to find my family knowing the emotions would flow too freely if I did. As the ceremony came to a close, I looked back and saw my sister. She gave me a thumbs up.
An outdoor reception followed the ceremony. Several of my classmates congratulated me on my speech. “You managed to include every part of PA school in that speech.” I didn’t realize that afternoon would be a goodbye to so many of them. Prof. Zorn told me my speech was “definitely in the top 5 graduation speeches” she’s heard. She’s been a professor for 7 years, which gives some insight into her grading system.
The rest of the weekend was a celebration of the joys of the journey in the setting of Indiana. Mom, Dad, Lindsay, and Brian stayed at an AirBnB house in Broad Ripple. I snagged the keys early and left them a Hoosier welcome basket: Just-Pop-In popcorn, Upland beer, XXX Root Beer, and of course a couple stalks of corn anchored by race flags. Mom and Dad finally got to tour Newfields and the Lilly beer garden. Dinner was at Flatwater, site of my first dinner in Indiana. It’s where I ended up following interviews. It’s also where Mom and I went after arriving in Indy. So many memories in that city.
Day drinking persisted. Following the Hooding Ceremony, a group of students and their families met at Half Liter. We told the stories that Mom loved to hear because they were the stories that don’t surface during our weekly calls. The next day we toured Indy. To save Dad some steps, we rented a bike carriage. Up the canal we cruised, John Mellencamp blasting from the radio. A little off-road action took us to the streets of Indianapolis! This thing was suddenly road-legal(-ish). Throughout, I wore my graduation cap. “Do you know how much this thing cost me?!”
One last Butler celebration to tie up the weekend. The full school graduation on the floor of Hinkle Fieldhouse. “Guys, sleep in. Check out the neighborhood. You’ve done enough for graduation,” I told the family. Jordan and I met at the base of the clocktower with a 6-pack to pre-game the ceremony. Conversation flowed awfully easy for 7am. Those beers did too. We learned more about each other in those 60 minutes than we had in the 2 years we had been in school together. It’s sad, in a way, but it’s the way things had to be. In that sense, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.
Throughout the weekend, emotions flowed. Joy. Pride. The overwhelming emotion was thankfulness. I was thankful for the unending support of my family and the opportunity to share this weekend with them. I was thankful for the relationships I had built over the past couple of years. I was thankful for the colleagues and classmates who helped me get to this point. I was thankful to the Butler family; the professors, colleagues, and classmates who pushed and demanded and made me a better person.
