The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began

Ahem. And now begins my Epic Graduation Post.

First, of course, I'm sure you want to have what I consider to be the prelude to my graduation-- my first Night Out Drinking. The Wednesday before graduation, a bunch of the theatre seniors were going out to Shipley's (the popular townie bar at the moment) with a junior friend as their DD. They asked me to come, not really thinking that I'd agree to go. But I figured, I really ought to go to Shipley's once before I graduate, and if I don't go, I'll just sit at home being sad. So I agreed, and they immediately got very excited, because they'd never seen me drink before.

I had a rum and coke and some of Tiffany's fries. Then I was talked into doing a shot of rum-- I said I'd do it as long as I wasn't paying for it, because I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. It tasted like drinking a permanent marker. I ate lots more of Tiffany's fries to cover the taste. Strangely, for a while right after that, I felt that I was thinking unusually clearly. Then, after a while, things got pleasantly... drinky? I then did a shot of tequila (again, I did not buy it) for the purpose of seeing if I could beat Seamus at tequila shots. This would require me having one shot of tequila without snorting it up my nose as he, somehow, did. I passed this test. Then I had another rum and coke. It was the most I'd ever had to drink at one time. This was all spread over the period of several hours, so at the end I was tipsy, but not actually drunk. Just enough to make the world a little spinny when I stood up and to make me talk more than I normally would. I got back to my room, and thought it was kind of hilarious that the words on the screen looked just a teensy bit weird, and that my fingers did not quite hit the keys squarely.

Toward the end of the night, some of my sorority sisters came into the bar, so the next day there were choruses throughout the house of, "ERIN WENT TO SHIPLEY'S?!" and lots of people trying to get me to go again that night so that they could see.

I spent a lot of the last few days walking around campus, feeling nostalgic and sad. Although four years seems like a long time ago, it also seems like not that much time has passed, if that makes any sense. It stormed Friday night and I was so nervous because, in case you have not previously heard this plan, my parents were flying down for my graduation. My brother's high school graduation was the same day, just two hours earlier. My parents decided they were going to charter a plane, leave immediately after Adam got his diploma, and be flown down to see me graduate. It was insane. At first I thought they were kidding. But they did it. I was really scared Friday that they were either going to crash and die or be unable to fly and have to split up, one going to my graduation, one to Adam's. I was incredibly relieved when the first thing that I saw when I woke up Saturday morning and the first thing I saw was the sunlight shining into the rack room.

Baccalaureate was that morning. The speech was given by a theology major, and it was really good. The best part, though, was when Shelley (who is a friend of mine) and Sarah sang "For Good" and I think pretty much everybody started crying. I cried. The only thing that held me back at all was the thought of my eyeliner. Oh! Then we all sang a hymn that included a verse about labs and boiling test tubes. I don't know if you know it, but it's the most ridiculous song ever. Jenaba had warned me about it, and I told her I was going to laugh. So pretty much the whole time I maintained eye contact with her as she sang in the choir, and I cracked up unabashedly, with the goal of breaking her, and I very nearly succeeded.

After that I went back to the sorority house to eat fruit and sandwiches. Then I went to the English Department reception and go to chat with all of my professors again. That was really nice. Then I met up with a bunch of people for pictures outside, and it was during this time that I got the phone call from my aunt, cousin, and grandma letting me know that they had arrived. They drove down. So I went back to the house to meet them and get my robe, and then I ran back for more pictures. I tried to show my family where to sit, but was not very successful, since we'd never rehearsed outside. At one we started lining up, in the loosest possible sense of the term. All I knew was that I was supposed to be in back with the honors graduates, so that's where I went. Standing around back there, I got the phone call from my mom letting me know that they had landed safely and were on their way. I was so excited. I turned to the nearest person I knew and exclaimed, "My parents are here!" They actually got to their seats with a good ten minutes to spare and didn't miss a thing.

The actual graduation ceremony was really nice. It was outside, on the point. They had a fancy podium set up under a tree, so that the tree was sort of overspreading us, and it was lovely. The weather was perfect. It was a little hot sitting in the sun all that time, even though they did provide water for us, and I got a bit sunburned, but that was fine. My friend Molly was the senior speaker, and she was excellent. She even managed to just barely not cry, and Molly cries at everything. She's one of the sweetest people I know; we have an ongoing joke where she pretends to hate me, and every now and then, even though it's completely obvious, she makes sure I know she's just kidding. Our grown-up speaker was a Republican congressman who graduated from Hanover. He was okay. He did a President Bush impression, but his normal voice is so close to that anyway that it wasn't much of a stretch. Then we lined up and got our diplomas, which are pretty fancy. I graduated magna cum laude. When I finally got up there and my name was called, this kind of tunnel-vision thing happened where I focused on Sue DeWine holding my diploma like she was at the end of a tunnel and all I had to do was get to her. My mom, my aunt, and Whitney were waiting to take my picture down by the other side of the stage, which was great. My mom kept gesturing for me to pause, and I was like, "We're not supposed to stop!"

Afterward, I circled the crowd twice trying to find my people and my camera. I got lots of hugs from my people, and I got my camera and struck out in search of the Battleses. I found them and talked to them for a long time. Dominique had a Hogwarts crest sewn or ironed onto her robe. I hugged them and got a picture which I hope will turn out. I'm so grateful to them for taking me under their wing for four years. I'm so, so lucky. They changed the whole course of my life and guided me along the path they'd shown me, and even though I'm leaving them, they're still pointing the way and warning me about obstacles up ahead. I couldn't ask for better guides.

After that I tracked down various friends and got pictures and hugs so tight I couldn't breathe. Tiffany, who is from Hawaii, looked like she'd been eaten by flowers. She had probably about thirty leis on, plus a head wreath. She was handing out leis to everyone she liked, so when she saw me she screamed my name and promptly leid me. It's a really cool one, too.

I then made my way back to my family, and we took lots of pictures on and around the podium, preventing the workers from dismantling it, and then at the point. I'm really happy my grandma got to come. And Aunt Barbara, and Katherine, my 15-year-old cousin who looked so grown up I almost didn't recognize her. And then we moved all my stuff out of my room. This process took a long time, and then since they're painting over the summer, I had to scrape all of the stuff off the walls, which sucked. It made me not so sad about leaving the house, let's put it that way. Then we drove out along Scenic, and I cried. I vividly remember the first time Mom and I drove up that drive, on my first visit to the campus, and how I thought it looked like Ithilien. And how the first time I walked around Hanover's campus it felt like home to me. Geez, I'm about to cry again just writing about it, so I'll stop. I definitely think I'll be one of those alumnae who come back to visit fairly often. Hanover was good to me.


The real crime...was the beard.