On December 13, 2008, I walked in the Fall 2008 commencement ceremony at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Of course, the commencement exercises do not make the graduation official - you don't even have to participate in order to graduate. The ceremony is exactly that - a ceremony. It is a moment of recognition. It is 1.5 hours of sitting in a rather ridiculous cap and gown in order to have a 10-second walk up on to a podium to hear your name called aloud and to receive a rather official-looking diploma cover which does not, in fact, contain a diploma. Where a diploma should be is instead a sheet of paper reminding each and every "graduate" that they haven't officially graduated until they receive an actual diploma in the mail in about 4-6 weeks.
Now that I think about it, the whole graduation ceremony is a rather silly formality. It's more for the people who want to recognize the graduate's achievements than it is for the graduate's wishing to be recognized for those self-same achievements. If most of the graduates are anything like me (which I believe they are), they are probably just happy to finally be done with it all. What makes my attendance even more ridiculous is the fact that I had to drive through the winter's first blizzard in order to arrive just in time to throw a cap and gown on and jump into the sea of graduates on the floor of the arena.
So, regarding the title of this post - my grades are all in now, and not only did I pass all of my classes, but I passed them with flying colors. So, even though I still have not received my diploma in the mail, I know that I will be receiving one. That's always a relief! Now I can start focusing my efforts on the next academic task at hand - getting myself into the University of Utah. I certainly wouldn't want to give myself a break...
