Graduation

Driving through my old neighborhood today, I saw a banner at Rhonda’s house that said “Congratulations!” and had a picture of a mortarboard. Hmmm, that couldn’t be Jason, I heard he’s driving a truck. Oh no, it’s Johnny! No, that couldn’t be, Johnny was a toddler last time I saw him! That was only... um, 15 years ago. Oh my, time flies the fastest when you’re watching kids grow up. Or when you don’t. I can’t imagine Johnny as an adult. But that’s what graduation is, a step into adulthood. I was 17 when I graduated from high school, 20 at college graduation, but it took me a few more years to “feel” like an adult. No matter that I was working and getting married and all that, it took a while to let go of my schoolkid state of mind. As much as kids look forward to adulthood, the transition is not as simple as handing over a diploma. But if you don’t have those milestones and rituals, a lot of kids would never leave the nest at all.




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What graduates have to look forward to.

101 Things to Do Before You Graduate. How many have YOU done?

How to Make an Anatomically Correct Brain Cake. You may laugh, but what could be better for a graduation party?

Graduation Speaker Bingo, with printable card. You’ll have to manipulate the card if more than one person plays.

Stephen Colbert’s commencement address to Knox College, 2006.

7 Memorable Commencement Addresses. Ali G gives his advice, Kurt Vonnegut wasn’t the one to advise you on sunscreen, and lots of surprising speakers who never got a degree.  

21-year-old William Lopez was ejected from his graduation ceremony Thursday at Yankee Stadium. New York University held its commencement at the ballpark because of construction at Washington Square Park. The students were told to stay off the field, but Lopez couldn’t resist the temptation to run the bases.

Congratulations to Jacek, who got his MBA from ESADE in Barcelona, and is leaving the Blogosphere to seek his fortune in Poland. I “met” Jacek when he was doing a humor blog out of New York City. Best of luck, Jacek!

J-Walk’s daughter graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, with an Aeronautical Engineering degree. Proof here. Congrats to John, Pamn, and the graduate!

Congratulations to Marti Lawrence’s youngest young’n, who is graduating high school! Marti also posted prom pictures.

Sophmom’s middle son graduated from Loyola University the day before Mothers Day (which brought tears to her eyes). Congratulations! 

I have a few prom links, but not enough to make an entire post on the subject. I hope you don’t mind that I throw them in here.

Grand Entrances (or) How I Got to the Prom. I wish they did stuff like this when I was in high school.

PAgent looks at the prom a bit differently as a parent than when he was in school.

How to take an old 80s prom dress and make it 2008.

My Skittle Wrapper Prom Dress.

College Humor’s collection of odd prom pictures.

COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES-THE SHORTER THE BETTER

Excerpted from an address by Nancy Scheper-Hughes to the graduates of the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology on May 20, 2005.

I'm pleased and honored to be your commencement speaker. But when I was invited to do so I wasn't told how long I should speak. So I did a little research. The longest commencement speech on record was given at Harvard College in the early 19th century. It lasted more than six hours and was delivered first in Latin and then repeated in Greek. I thought I might give mine in English followed by Portuguese, Gaelic, Xhosa, Moldovan, Tagalog, and Hebrew translations to honor a few of my anthropological field sites. But as my graduate students can tell you, I am no linguist. So English followed by Pigeon might be more appropriate.

Another school of thought, however, is that shorter is always better. On one occasion the Queen of England was scheduled to visit a small out-of the way village where she was to attend Church services. The nervous minister called the palace for advice. A royal assistant advised: "If you preach for 30 minutes the queen will be greatly displeased. If you preach for 20 minutes the queen will be patient. But if you preach for 10 minutes the queen will be delighted. "But what can one possibly say in 10 minutes?" the minister protested. "That," said the royal assistant stiffly "is of absolutely no concern to the Queen."

marriedtothesea.com

 

FIRST JOB

A young man hired by a supermarket reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, "Your first job will be to sweep out the store."

"But I'm a college graduate!!" the young man replied indignantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry about the misunderstanding," said the manager. "Here, give me the broom - I'll show you how.”

Spade’s Last Graduation (Thanks, Jeanine!)

Get your hankies ready.

Previously at Miss Cellania: College and School Children

Thought for today: Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.  ~Garry Trudeau

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Comments

[GraduatedFeathers]

Commencement speech: congratulations on leaving the nest of childhood and joining the ranks of adulthood. Now start paying taxes. I want to retire ;-)

[Marti]

That was great! Thanks for the mention! Best wishes to you for a wonderful day!

[Sophmom]

Middle Son graduated last week from Loyola University New Orleans. It was in the Louisiana Superdome. Colbert's speech was better than the one we heard. Nice post, Miss C.

[Miss Cellania]

Congratulations, Sophmom! I'll add that to the post.

[Saskboy]

I found my Kindergarten graduation ceremony photo the other week, I should post it on my blog :)

[Jan]

Thanks for the fun of graduations and proms, etc. My youngest of four is graduating from high school! She's even giving the salutatory speech, which she's still writing. . . .13 days!