Graduation: Monday, Class Day

At Columbia (University) there are four different undergraduate colleges: Columbia College (the main one), SEAS (the engineering school), GS (my program, for “non-traditional students), and Barnard (the affiliated women’s college). Each of these four colleges have their own private graduation ceremony, called Class Day, since it is the ceremony for each individual class. This is the ceremony where your name is called and your degree read. You get to walk across the stage and shake each of the dean’s hands, although they don’t give you your degree at that point. I remember the ceremony took a LONG time to organize, even though there were only a few hundred of us. But they got us going eventually, and they had a band playing for us (which you can see here). The speaker was a GS alum whose name escapes me, but she had graduated awhile ago and now worked as an IP lawyer in the Bay area. Her speech was good if not terribly moving (at least to me personally) but it was great to see what sorts of things other GS alums have gone on to. Going up and getting my name read was a bit surreal. I remember standing on the line, waiting for them to call my name, then I heard it and I began walking forward, and it was all kind of a blur for a few seconds. Going up there, I was trying to pay attention to the reading of my name because I wanted to hear them read out my Latin honors which I had worked VERY hard to achieve. But somehow, in the midst of that blur, I missed hearing it one way or the other. But my friends told me they did read it. And seeing my classmates graduate, watching them walk across the stage and hearing their names read was in many ways more gratifying than hearing my own name read. It was extraordinary being able to be a part of their lives and their moments, of being able to share that moment together with them. My brother Mark was already in town, but he’d left earlier in the day to go meet my dad at the airport. I hadn’t expected them to come back in time for the ceremony, but they’d made it back midway through and had a chance to see most of it. After the ceremony was over there was a reception on one of the lawns at the campus and it was a great time to mingle with my teachers, classmates, and family and have some great food & drink. We stayed fairly late talking with people and making introductions, and then my family and I went out to dinner. A great evening.