Friday, May 26, 2006

   Faber est suae quisque fortunae
I probably won't have any pictures from my graduation for a few more days, whenever it is my dad can get around to e-mailing me the pics he took (and he took about five million, it was getting a little ridiculous . . .). But I will say that I had a pretty good time. Here's how the caper came down . . . . .

* * * * * * *

Got to school with the aniki and the Calgary sect of family at about 11:30am while the ototo drove the parents to the airport to check them in. It was just enough time to give them a micro-tour of the northern end of my campus and grab some pizza for lunch. As we walked around, I was getting more and more self-conscious about how I was dressed: I had dress pants, a white dress shirt, and my grandpa's red tie (it was the article of clothes I had picked out when my grandma told us to clear out what she could a few months after the funeral - see, I'm sentimental that way). Meanwhile, everyone else around me was wearing like, suits and stuff - heck, my uncle and the aniki even wore a suit that day! I dunno, I was just concerned about the heat under a grad gown and everything . . . ah well, too late for that . . .

At noon, I had to go to the graduate center to get my gown and get prepped and all that. As we circled back up, I found the father (who promptly snapped a picture as we walked closer). Everyone met together quickly and then I went on to the grad' center. Now, originally the aniki was coming with me, but then the father also caught up . . . heh, which was funny, because the aniki and I were about to talk about said-father a bit . . . ah well . . . . . anyway, the line-up was chugging along, I FINALLY saw people I recognised . . . and then my dad took more pictures.

Anyway, the aniki figured that basically it was grads only from that point on, so he urged the father to leave with him (I appreciated that). Of course, the father was concerned that I would get lonely, so to everyone's chagrin stuck with me in the line-up . . . taking more photos . . . . . . and I'm serious, once I was actually getting my gown, there was a SIGN that said "Grads only this point on". Nope, the father stuck with me, snapping pictures . . . . .

. . . . . I'm just gonna get it out there. When you grow up with just your mom, sometimes your dad becomes strange. Unlike some dads who'll try to embarrass you intentionally, mine is honestly thinking he's being a "there for me" kinda dad. Again, refer to said picture taking which really drove the aniki to his dark place . . . . . in any case, the father's a good guy. He's just . . . I dunno, maybe he doesn't realise that his son is in fact graduating from UNIVERSITY . . .

(Note the use of the JK Rowlings "Capslock of Rage"(TM). Yes, that is how emphatic it was.)

Aaaaanyways, the father did help pin my Bachelors hood to my gown, so that was nice. I looked around a bit for people I knew and stuff, but no dice. so I headed out the back door that lead to a sort of . . . I dunno, "backyard" area behind the graduate center. Found a girl I knew from Children's Lit' and War Lit', chatted with her a bit (the father snapped a picture) . . . eventually I called the ototo to find out where he was . . .

The parents (the mother and stepdad) were on campus at last!

Now, this backard area also had a path that led to a street corner. Technically we weren't supposed to leave the center, but people already were anyways, so I just stepped outside it to find my family. So yeah, after years and years and years of raising me, my mom finally got to see me wearing that gown and all that stuff. She seemed happy. I was glad.

And then I learned finally just how many combinations of brothers, cousins, aunt and uncle, and parents you can actually make to compose a photo (that would then be shot by three or four cameras). Yeah, there were a lot of pictures of us . . . a little nuts, methinks. In any case, the parents then went to find another family friend who would take them to the airport (and then to England) while the rest got into line to go into the theater.

So yeah, if you haven't noticed, we went through a lot of effort to get my mom to campus, even for just that little bit so we could get some pictures together. Just sayin'.

Now, the people then called us all back into the grad' center and sort us out. We all lined up into columns based on our procession number (I was 253 out of . . . I dunno, almost 500 people that one ceremony); we were apparently the largest group of graduates that spring, and we were all just English and Music students! At some point I turned around and saw an old classmate I hadn't seen in half a year - she also happened to be pregnant, which was neat. It's hard to describe right now, but the whole organisation thing was way more fun than it should have been. We were all laughing, cracking jokes, feeling warm . . . while we were all counting back to each other to confirm our places in line, I had a major "Band of Brothers" flashback (y'know, "Seven okay! Six okay! Five okay!...").

Anyway, we filed out and headed towards the Chan Centre for Performing Arts, where the ceremony was taking place. As we passed by, they handed us our diplomas and procession cards (which had our names and any pronunciation notes we felt the reader might need). Then off we went, through the light rain, down into a bit of the parking lot, and finally into seats in the theater. It was during this time that we realised that procession order wasn't exactly alphabetical; they were ordered by our fields of study first, and then by name. Heh . . . suddenly I realised that there were five other people graduating that spring with a Major in English, empahsis Literature and a Minor in Classical Studies.

Most of the actual ceremony was just people giving speeches. Y'know, we are the future, clean up Lake Erie, go save the world . . . I was just trying to figure out where my family was sitting! I found the father and uncle quickly, as they had moved ahead to videotape and photograph me better . . . the other five, not so easy . . . . . eventually we started getting called up . . . and we clapped. And then the next would walk across the stage, and we would clap. Then someone with a really fancy name would walk across the stage, and I would say "niiiice" because the reader did it so well, and then we would clap.

Eventually we started clapping less and less for every single person. There were a lot of us. But then sometimes you would see a classmate and you'd have to make more noise. Or say, they'd just look cute, or so proud, or embarrassed slightly, or waving to someone in the audience . . . or making secret gestures or something . . . ah, it was good. We were all having fun seeing each other go by.

Then my row gets up. we're all getting psyched. I'm still trying to find my damn brothers. No luck. I was gonna hafta count on figuring out where the very deep and baritone cheering was coming from . . . . . anyways, I quickly told the reader how to say my middle name (which I was regretting that I had on that card), and she quickly picked it up. So I gotta tell ya, it's a damn proud thing to hear your name being read CORRECTLY when you graduate. Then "flash", a few pictures on the side, a loud roar of masculinity from the far back and far top . . . heh, I still couldn't find them.

Then I walked across, flashed a quick sideways "devil horns" sign for my brothers (who I think missed it anyway), shook hands with all the people along the way, and picked up my alumni pin at the end. Heh, that pin was tiny . . . "five years for this!"

The rest went by much more chilled-like for me. Heh . . . and then the Music students got up . . . I gotta tell ya, I was jealous. As expected, the music students were ALL friends with each other, so tons of applause and cheer broke out for everyone. Heck, even the band in the theater was blasting out little musical cues for certain people (very funny stuff).

And then it was over. And we all cheered even more. Damn, it was a good day . . . . .


After the ceremony, there were some people to find and take pictures with, I chatted a bit with my Arthurian Lit' prof . . . couldn't find the Beowulf prof' . . . damn Wieland . . . . . but yeah, it was good. We were all very proud of ourselves, I think.


I messed up the coding in my last post, so I think I lost this bit. While the parents have promised me a trip as a graduation present, the brothers together got me a really nice Colibri of London watch. For one thing, it's a pocket watch (clever). For another, it's silver which just works for me (I don't know how they knew to do that). Best of all, it had an inscription on the back:

"Faber est Suae Quisque Fortunae"

It's a quote from Appius Claudius Caecus, the guy who (among other things), built the Appian way, first aqueduct in Rome, published the first legal procedures, gave many rights to lower-classed men, and served as a censor, a consul, and a dictator (less brutal connotations in those days). During the war with King Pyrrhus of Epirus, Appius made his war speech - the earliest war speech in recorded Latin - which stated that Rome would never surrender. This quote was a part of that speech . . .

"Every man is the artisan of his own fortune."
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