Graduation Experience...

[MeanGreenTXN]

Okay guys,

Someone share a recent graduation experience from when they woke up graduation day to when they went to bed after all of the pomp and circumstance was done. Where was it held? Who all was allowed to attend etc.?

Thanks in advance. Looking forward to the stories.

[JesseMartin]

Are we talking about UNT graduation?

[MeanGreenTXN]

Yup.

[JesseMartin]

Well I got up and grabbed all of my "regalia" and went to the legendary Tom Noggle's house. He told me the night before to make sure he was up and didn't miss it, but his parents were there so he was already on the move. Then I went to the Coliseum to get ready with everybody else and they told Tom he couldn't take his Dixie Cup, even though it was empty, but we advised them that late-night pre-graduation parties could lead to bad hangovers, and if he needed to throw up somewhere it would be better in the cup than on one of us or the Dean.

So we all marched in with the safety of the Noggle Cup assured and heard Bobby Ray (Regents Chair) tell the same joke he told at every graduation every year. We were allowed to sit with whomever we liked, because we had numbers for our graduation order so we lined up in groups. While listening to speeches, I said, "Hey, you guys know what's funny?"...and Andy Golden says, "What, that you have on more 'flair' than anybody else here?" And I said, "No...what? Do I?" And he laughed and said, "Yup." Anyway, the thing I thought was funny was something about the graduation speech, but the friend who gave the speech is on here and I don't know if they would be mad if I repeated it so...

I almost tripped over my man-dress so I ended up jogging up to get my degree, and then when walking out I had to pee because I had a fairly late night as well, but since I got multiple degrees I had to get right back in line and hold it. So the next hour was focused on not letting my bladder explode before walking a second time.

My "family" was there, because this was one of the few periods when we were on good terms, and afterwards they took me out for dinner. Then it was back to work for a week until our Citibank Denton office closed, and then I went on one of my many cross-country solo road trips as a graduation present to myself, taking my first visits to New Mexico, Arizona, and California, where I developed some really awesome friendships that have lasted longer than most of the fleeting ones prior to college graduation.

I took one semester off while looking for an opportunity to "grow" with a job and ended up getting laid off 3 more times in the same year along with about a hundred other people in the jobs I had the great timing to pursue. So then I started grad school the January following my spring graduation, because my test scores were still valid from when my ex demanded that I take the GRE. So then I started another chapter of my UNT life, but that's a story for another time and topic

[TheWestie]

Well I had to work until about 2 hours before my Friday at 7 pm August 2011. I decorated my mortar board as the Mean Green Battle Flag (green and white Texas flag) and I think I was the only guy who had during my graduation. After the ceremony I went to Raising Cane's in Lewisville with my parents and my girlfriends family. My mom got me a cookie cake from Target with green and white icing.

We then went back to my parents hotel room and opened a 1997 bottle of Moët Chandon that my mom stashed away in the fridge in 1998 and always said we would open when I graduated from college. That champagne survived three different refrigerators, Tropical Storm Allison, my high school graduation, the 2005 World Series, Hurricanes Rita and Ike, my sister's graduation from UT, and my dad's retirement. The cork was toast and the champagne inside had gone bad long, long ago but there was a cool feeling of finality from opening it. We poured it into paper hotel bathroom cups and it was awful. But very symbolic.

Then I had to work again the next day at 8 am so I went to go to bed.

(I started as a freshman in the fall of 2003 and finally graduated in Summer 2011. I screwed up a lot. My two and a half years younger sister graduated from UT in 2010. My graduation was more of a "Well thank goodness that shit is finally over. When do they start sending student loan bills?" kind of affair.)

Edited May 21, 2013 by TheWestie

[North Texas Shep]

I have graduated twice from two different colleges and never walked. Just did not want to deal with it. Plus, my family did not care if I did or not. Instead we had parties and ate a bunch of BBQ. That is the way to do it. No waiting for hours to get a symbolic piece of paper till your real diploma comes in the mail. With all that being said... If I would have graduated in 2004, when I was supposed to and would have walked with some of my old UNT buddies... I probably would have done it. The main thing is to celebrate it in some way, walk or no walk.

[MeanGreenTXN]

Great stories, guys. I think it's a lot of fun to reminisce.

Keep 'em coming.

Did they group you by major Jesse?

[oldguystudent]

I didn't bother walking for undergrad. Back then, they only did one ceremony a year in June, and I had a couple classes that summer to finish, so it didn't feel right.<br /><br />For the graduate ceremony in Denton in the Super Pit, I was pissed off that they didn't have the Mean Green Hospitality Room open. How rude!<br /><br />No, but mostly, we tax grads looked at all the MBAs and commented on how adorable they all were.

[JesseMartin]

They didn't group us by major, but by type of degree and by College/School. Since 2 of my 3 were from Arts and Sciences, I only got 1 "your degree goes here" folder for the BAs, and then the Visual Arts as well as a couple others were the next ceremony. Not sure how different it is lately with more people graduating, but they had 2 or 3 graduation ceremonies in a row with a couple of the colleges/schools in each, and then I think they separated us by BA, BS, BFA, etc as well as grad/undergrad.

So for instance, let's say they have CAS and SLIS in the same ceremony...they'll do a set of grad students, BA, and BS for CAS and then the same for SLIS. Again, that's how it was a decade ago...

[golfingomez]

I just remember that I was up at like 8 AM that day, since all the family was there, I honestly wasn't really looking forward to it in the days leading up... but i'll be damned if I didn't have a blast all day with my family and friends, after i walked the stage, i think we all went back to my parents hotel room and had a makeshift party that was spilling over into the hall...

I think I got back to my apt, at 9 and even though I had planned on a trip to Fry that night, I was so tired i almost immediately went to sleep

[TheWestie]

I was more excited and my heart was beating faster when golfingomez and I were jumping up and down hugging and screaming in the hallway on the 6th floor of West Hall when the Astros won the 2005 NLCS than I was at my graduation...

[MeanGreenTXN]

Okay well that that's entirely acceptable. lol