I’m…. done.

That’s it, folks. I graduated tonight at 7:30 pm in a small ceremony with several of my favorite peers. Karmon’s boss was onhand at the ceremony, and came and talked to me for about 10 minutes beforehand. It was really hard to leave that job behind, but I am SO thrilled to be done with school that words don’t even begin to express it.

My entire family made the trip into town, my mom made it through nearly the whole ceremony without crying for a change and it was very nice to have my whole family there. Tasha and her mom showed up too, which was just great.

Surprisingly, I choked myself up a few times as I walked up the aisle to the ceremony… I guess it mostly sunk in that I had actually accomplished this. And I was leading the pack, so I had to follow the chair of the Computer Science department, which didn’t help much. I liked her a lot during my time there. But I made it through, keeping the sterotype alive that men only cry during abject physical or emotional pain.

I was happy to see that one of my friends Asim, was also graduating even though I did not know this ahead of time. It was nice to have Dr. Helm, my Honors Director, at the ceremony as well. He is acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences now, so I didn’t get to see much of him this semester. He was beaming at me from his seat as I crossed the stage.

All in all, it was a nice commencement. Now all I have to do is find a job that pays well.