Graduation and Why Ceremony Sucks

This past weekend I graduated from Marist College.  For me it was a two day affair as I was awarded a scholarship award at another ceremony as well as my degree during the general commencement ceremony.  I won’t bore everyone with the details but here is a general overview of the events.

Baccalaureate Ceremony

A few weeks back I was nominated for a scholarship award for my work as a student employee in my college’s networking department.  This past semester I wrote a web application to help manage the new network access control system as well as provide a way for students to register network devices like game consoles and Tivos.  I won the scholarship award and that meant I had to go to the Baccalaureate Ceremony on Friday.  It lasted exactly one hour which was great for me since I don’t like ceremonies, especially long ones.  The one interesting thing about the event was listening to everyone’s achievements.  There were some very driven and talented individuals that definitely deserved to be honored there that day.  One cool thing I got to do after the ceremony was take my picture with President Murray, the president of the college.  Even though he doesn’t know who I am and probably never will, its still kind of cool.

Commencement

Saturday was the general commencement.  The weather could not have been better.  The only problem was we were wearing all black!  I know that it is traditional for graduates to wear black robes but I think that is one tradition that needs to be thrown out. 🙂 Our commencement speaker was Vicki Mabrey, a journalist for ABC News.  I think she is on the show Nightline.  Mabrey’s speech was short and to the point, exactly what a commencement speech should be.  While I enjoyed the speech, I can’t help but feel that it was a little unremarkable.  I don’t think I will remember the speech for the rest of my life but it certainly has an important messages for the next couple of years.

After the ceremony, the typical photos were taken with friends and family.  The so called “reception” after the ceremony was pathetic.  Marist really dropped the ball on that one.  Marist, if you reading, make the reception a real one next time.  Get some real food.

Anyway, after the pitiful reception, I got to introduce my mom and dad to some of my professors that have been instructing me these past four years.  Putting a face to the many names I have said over the years was pretty important to them so I was happy to oblige.

Ceremony: Not a Fan

Just as a warning to any future girlfriends/wife that may be reading this, I do not like ceremony or tradition very much.  The only reason why I went to my graduation is because my parents wanted me to.  Since I owe my parents a lot it was the least I could do.  But as a general rule, I find ceremony a tremendous waste of time and money.  I don’t like weddings, award ceremonies, or any other event that is purely done because it’s tradition.  So if you are a future girlfriend and you want a large wedding, we might have a problem. 🙂