Graduation recap: From ‘feedstock’ to time to walk…
Commencement, aka morning graduation
Even though ASU doesn't bring in an outside commencement speaker and instead relies on President Crow to fill that role, I decided to wake up early, don my cap and gown and take the bus over to Wells Fargo Arena (because no way was I going to drive anywhere near campus today) for Commencement.
And it was worthwhile. Commencement is where we're officially awarded our degrees, although as bachelor's students you just stand up with everyone else in your college to be recognized. There's a sweet balloon drop at the end. And, of course, we all got to hear ol' Mikey explain what ASU is all about, make some of his characteristically corny jokes and then send us off with an decently inspiring charge. Crow said that our current situation is more than a financial crisis; rather, our society has fundamentally gotten off track in placing too much importance on individual success. He charged all of us with getting the country back on the right path.
But even better was when he was talking about how indebted the University is to the K-12 system, which he said provides the "feedstock" for ASU.
Second best was when he recognized the cum laude graduates, then the magna cum laude kids and then jokingly gave the summa cum laude childrens (myself included) the title "master of the universe."
Cronkite Convocation, aka afternoon graduation
But the main event was the Cronkite School Convocation, our college-specific graduation where bachelor's candidates actually walk and we have a keynote speaker who is not Michael Crow.
I got to play follow-up to this fall's keynote speaker, Arizona Diamondbacks President (and Cronkite alum) Derrick Hall. That meant I got to spend graduation sitting on stage between Hall and Nicole Carroll, executive editor of The Arizona Republic and the latest alumni hall of famer.
Sitting on stage turned out to be incredibly convenient since I was honored — largely unbeknownst to me until I saw my name in the program a billion times (misspelled only once, and "Brain" sure beats the hell out of "Bran" anyway) — as...
- a Kappa Tau Alpha inductee (That one I saw coming since they tell you about it beforehand.)
- an Outstanding Undergraduate Student
- and the graduate with the highest GPA (Thank you, two semesters of five-credit-hour Romanian classes!)
So basically, I was that guy for whom Mike Wong has to say, "Will Brian Indrelunas please remain at the podium?"
I mean, dang, I walked... I was recognized three different times... and then after all that, I got to speak for five minutes.
And the speech went so well. I barely needed my notes and was able to deliver it pretty much as I wanted to — at what felt like an appropriate speed, with all the necessary hand gestures and none of the nervous looking down at the paper and losing my spot.
My speech was well received, too. I mean, of course no one's going to come up to someone who just graduated and spoke and tell them that the speech was a bunch of junk, even if that's what the person thought. But I heard some really genuinely nice things about my remarks, which I'll post later tonight after I get back from visiting my dad at his hotel and after I add in all the ad-lib phrases that aren't in my typed copy.