Graduation!

Katie D.

June 15, 2010 - 2:49 PM

What a whirlwind adventure this has been. I've graduated! A college grad with nothing to show but a heap of pictures, memories, transcripts, cap and gown, and all the friendships I have accumulated during this amazing four years. This whole weekend has been a long celebration of that time-a moment to recognize what has happened, what we have to look forward to, and what we're losing. My family has been here with me, which is so wonderful. My friends are all around, and we're working through the goodbye process already.

The first graduation ceremony was Sunday night-the Clark Honors College Commencement ceremony. It was held in the EMU Ball room, and almost 120 of us walked across the stage. They hold fabulous graduations-my favorite part is that every graduate has their full thesis title read, as well as a brief statement about what their future plans are. It was wonderful to watch and listen as one after another of my classmates walked up on stage, crossed to the description of what they would be doing with their lives, and received the Honors College hood that stands in place of a diploma. So many of my closest friends have been in the Honors College, and so many faces and names were familiar to me. People wrote incredibly creative theses, and have truly interesting plans for next year, from travels to employment to school to buying cats. I think three individual people plan to buy cats. All of us plan to live exciting and adventurous lives.

Graduation was particularly exciting for me because of two things. First, I was honored to receive the Honors College President's Thesis Award. This means I was seated on stage with the other award winners, and was honored by praise from my thesis advisor. The thesis awards are described on the Honors College http://honors.uoregon.edu/ website as:

Each spring, between seven and twelve graduating seniors are recognized with a thesis award. These students successfully tackled ambitious projects, and excelled in the oral defense as well as with the written thesis. In addition, the faculty select a commencement speaker from among the very top students of Clark Honors College, looking for students who have not only excelled academically, but thrived in the CHC community. A banner carrier, who leads the procession of graduating students, is recognized for leadership within CHC.

The President's Award, the oldest and most prestigious commencement award, is given for an outstanding scholastic record at the University of Oregon and completion of a thesis of especially distinguished quality.

I was thrilled.

Second, I was invited to be the student commencement speaker for the ceremony. It was a great honor, and something I was thrilled to do. I have grown to truly enjoy public speaking, although I was very nervous, and was so honored by the trust behind this gesture. I'm putting up a link on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCgXlORUqWI for anyone who wants to see the speech. In my normal style, I didn't write the speech out beforehand, so I can't include the written version. I'm pretty pleased with how it all turned out.

The best part of graduation, of course, is that moment when you move the tassel from the right side to the left side, and know you've truly done it. Graduated, done, ready for the next step. Or, at least, as ready as you can be. Then we all trouped down stairs to drink champagne and eat cake with our families, professors, and fellow grads.

Monday was the large graduation for the full school, which I did not attend, but I did officially attend the ceremony for the Comparative Literature department. We shared a ceremony with German and Scandinavian studies and Eastern European and Judaic studies. This made us quite the ecclectic and spirited group, with a great combination of interests. There were only nine Comparative Literature graduates, and I was close with seven of my fellow graduates. The best part of a small department is the ability to really get to know the professors and fellow students. I was so happy to be flipping my tassel with another group of wonderful UO graduates, and happy to be there beside so many people I'd seen in so many classes.

A million pictures have been taken, tons of cake and champagne consumed, and hands shaken by so many of my favorite professors and best friends. I talked about this in my commencement speech: that this time of celebration is also one of great loss. This has been such an important opportunity for me to celebrate and recognize what I have had during these four years. I feel increasingly lucky that I've decided to stay at the University of Oregon for another two years of graduate study. So I'm flipping my tassel, saying my goodbyes, and settling in to spend another two years working and studying hard, and so appreciating this place.

Happy Graduation, class of 2010! Good luck, and let's never forget.