Me and my wonderful parents at my graduation partyWell, I've been an alumna for exactly 7 days now. It's kind of like a birthday: I don't feel different, but I know that something's changed. I don't think it will really hit me until August, when I don't move back here and start classes again. Yesterday was Reunion Weekend here and I was giving a bunch of alumnae from the 80s an apartment tour. One asked when I would graduate, to which I shyly responded, "Well, I graduated last weekend. I'm class of 2010." She shrieked "You're one of us! Congratulations!" I hadn't really thought of it like that before. I am an alumna. Strange.
Graduation weekend was wonderful. The baccalaureate service was very lovely; our speaker, a Methodist minister/alumna (we like to keep it in the family around here!) talked about Lydia in the New Testament and how, as we go out into the world, we should be women of faith and women of purpose, just like Lydia. That afternoon we had Class Day, where the seniors and sophomores donned our white dresses and gathered in the amphitheater to recap our 4 years here and celebrate sisterhood. That was the first time I really cried; standing on the island, waiting to take apart the daisy chains that formed our numerals, I was holding Louisa's hand, with Hillary on her other side and it hit all three of us at the same time. Imagine the three of us, standing there, holding on to each other with all our might and sobbing because the realization that we'd be right back there the next day to take our diplomas and leave came upon us that suddenly.
Graduation morning dawned bright and early. I did lose my tassel on the way to line up, but my friend VC found it and gave it back :). My name was spelled right on my diploma (magna cum laude, too!), I remembered to shake Dr. Hartford's hand before I took the diploma from her, I didn't fall on the island, and I got the biggest hugs from my advisor and our class advisor. The graduation party was a lot of fun too; part of my family, who didn't go to the ceremony (we had a LOT of people in town), went to the shelter early to set up and they did a beautiful job. We ate, laughed, took lots of pictures: all in all, it was perfect.
And now I'm an alumna. It still sounds so strange. I'm in the process of moving out of MC for the last time (!!) and training for my new job. I'm going to be a reading teacher this summer, but before I get into the classroom, there is three weeks of intensive training that I have to go through. I'm on day 4 of week 1 and it is a lot, but I think I'm going to enjoy it. This whole being (almost) a grownup thing is a little scary, though. Mostly exciting and just a little scary.
