Graduation

I am now a Randolph-Macon Woman's College Alum. It's a bit weird to say, and I'm not sure if I'm totally used to the idea, but one thing is for sure: I had a wonderful weekend. Tony drove down from Chicago and my Mom, Dad, brother, and sister all gathered from Houston, Princeton, and Durham to join me at Macon for my final weekend.

Graduation weekend at Macon begins with the Baccalaureate Ceremony in the Chapel Saturday morning. The speaker this year was Dr. Schwartz, my philosophy adviser, one of my very favorite professors, and overall one of my favorite people. So, of course, we had to go, and I'm thrilled that we did because his wonderful speech made me cry.

Reena and I carrying the Daisy Chain

Later the day on Saturday is Daisy Chain. The sophomores (our sister class, as we are both Evens, aka graduating in an even year: '10/'12) wake up extra early and weave us a chain of daisies. The seniors gather on the steps of Martin and wait while the sophomores walk down the hill singing to weave through the seniors. Once the seniors and sophomores are reunited, we sing a few songs, then the seniors weave away with the chain to the Sundial, where Garden Party begins and we all get refreshments after standing out in the sun wearing robes and button stoles for an hour. It's also a good opportunity for families to meet the professors whom their daughters/sons have known and talked about for the past four years.

Dr. Schwartz, Dr. Cohen, and I at Garden Party

And that concludes the frivolities on Saturday. Sunday is all serious business, when we lose the button stoles and silly hats for honor cords and... well, silly hats.

Our hall: Reena, myself, Megan, Sam, Alex, Kelly on the steps of Webb

Our day began at 8:15 sharp, and thankfully, it began in the Dell. One of the most desired events for a Maconite is to have graduation in the Dell, and that's a huge thing I wanted from the year. After all the shit our class has had to go through, it seemed the least the world could do to make our exit from Randy Mac much more pleasant than our entrance. It looked shady for awhile, and I nearly bruised my knuckles with all the knocking on wood I did all year to ward of jinxes, but thankfully the storm clouds cleared up Saturday night and it was sunny and beautiful all Sunday morning. I can not express how thankful I am for this.

Me with my sister and squire

The reason we had to be up and ready at 8:15 would of course be for graduation rehearsal, where we practiced walking and the squires practiced hooding their grads. A squire is someone whom the graduate chooses to walk with them and drape over their fancy hood in the middle of the ceremony. I was my sister's squire at her graduation from R-MWC in 1999, and 11 years later my sister was my squire at my own R-MWC graduation. I love it when things come full circle; it's the playwright in me.


The ceremony itself was wonderful and featured the 97 year old ex-President Quillian as the commencement speaker (and an all-too-fitting performance of Minnie the Moocher by Touch of Harmony). It was a beautiful day and ceremony, and I'm so happy that so many of the people whom I love could be there. Speaking of the people whom I love, here are just a few of them.

Me, Mom, and Dad

Me with my brother and sister, Jenny and Jody

Caleb, Rhiannon, Kelly, Sam, me, and Struble

Dr. Cohen and Dr. Stevens, my Classics professors and the two best mentors I could ever hope for. Also two of my favorite people, on and off campus.

There are many other people who helped make my graduation special simply with their presence and support, but I'm afraid if I don't stop the pictures now, I will be here all night uploading them.

As for honors, this semester I managed (with a GPA over a 3.9) to qualify for Cum Laude, and graduated with that honor after years of working to recover from a rough first semester, and without my entire junior year to help (since I went abroad, all my credits that year counted as Pass/Fail and didn't affect my GPA). I wore an honor cord from Eta Sigma Phi, the Classics Honor Society.

Also, Dr. Cohen submitted my senior paper for consideration for an award from the College's Writing Board. Out of the other papers submitting, four out of four judges voted my paper first place, earning me the title of Best Senior Paper. After working on my project (a play on the trial and death of Socrates) all year, it was a huge relief and honor to receive such an amazing award.

Oh, yeah, we rocked college.