college graduation

Well, it finally happened… I graduated yesterday.  But before that was Senior Week.

All the seniors moved into the Towers on Tuesday afternoon, which was probably sentimental to some people, but I lived in Norsworthy freshman year, so it was more just about being in the same dorm as the rest of my classmates.  After moving in, there was a picnic for everyone on the Sundial Lawn, but I had to go do a track workout instead.  After the workout, I found out the Towers were locked, so I had to drive back to Centennial to shower and pick out some clothes for the night, then meet back up with everyone.  By then it was time to load the buses to go to Atlantic City.  AC was a lot of fun, and this time I actually gambled.  Me, EG, and Billy took a cab to Harrah’s where we played poker.  I played at the $2/$4 table, where I bought in for $60 but was only able to cash out with $21 for a loss of 39 bucks.  But I had hung in there for 3 hours and it was my first time ever playing poker in a casino, so I didn’t even mind.  When we got back to TCNJ at 3am, though, I just wanted to go to bed and get some rest (I had a track meet the day after graduation so I didn’t drink or stay up all night the entire time), but some guys on my floor were blasting music and slamming doors all night, which was extremely irritating.

I did get to sleep in somewhat on Wednesday morning because I took the day off from running.  But I still hung out with the track team because Coach Mobley organized a kickball game for us.  I wasted some time walking back and forth between Green Lane fields and the track trying to find them, but eventually I located them at Green Lane, and we all played kickball for awhile.  My team won, of course, cuz I’m so good.  By then, all the seniors were congregating on the far corner of Green Lane fields for that afternoon’s event, so I just walked over to meet up with them.  In my opinion, Wednesday afternoon at Green Lane was the best part of senior week.  Everyone was laying out in the sun with breaks to eat lunch and dessert or to engage in some of the activities they had set up.  There was a foam pit where we could get all sudsy and an inflatable slip and slide for us to rinse off.  I did each of those several times.  There was also a mechanical bull which I rode once, but it hurt my hips so I didn’t ride it anymore.  Additionally, I played softball and football, and would have played frisbee too, but I was getting worn out by then.  So when that was done, we had a couple hours to recoup and get ready to go to Bar A for the night.  The scheduling could have been a lot better, unfortunately, because our bus arrived to Bar A at the unheard of early hour of 8:30, and that was with a pit stop for the rest of the bus to get beer.  This was especially early considering we weren’t scheduled to leave until 1:45 (but they ended up loading some buses earlier because 5 hours is a long time to be at a bar).  I didn’t drink, but it was still ok; Karl came down to hang out at the bar and I danced a bunch with Lauren.  When the buses finally got us back to TCNJ, I slipped back to my Centennial room, undetected by security, in order to get some sleep because I had to do a workout on Thursday morning.

I woke up at 7:30 to be done with the workout and showered by 11am, when we went to Great Adventure.  We only stayed for a few hours, so we didn’t get to do too many rides, but I have been there plenty of times already anyways, so I didn’t mind.  Me and Lauren did sneak our way onto Superman for two consecutive rides, by hopping right back into two unoccupied seats as soon as our ride had ended.  But Shhh! don’t tell anyone.  Thursday night was the last night of Senior Week, and it ended with the Senior Sendoff, a semiformal dance.  By this time, however, I was only two days away from my track meet, so I didnt wan’t to be on my feet all night, so I only danced to a few songs, but I still had a really fun time there hanging out with all the TCNJ kids for one last night and watching everyone else go all out.  And I had planned on sleeping in the Towers that night because we had to be up early for graduation, but as soon as I heard everyone boasting about how they were going to stay up drinking all night long, I suspected that I would probably have to go back to Centennial to get any sleep.  And the kids playing beer can bowling directly outside my door validated my premonition.  So once again I drove back to Centennial hall to spend the night.

So that was Senior Week.  Three days of constant activities and festivities leading up to the main event: GRADUATION!  We had to be dressed up in our caps and gowns and hoods and lined up outside the student center at 8:30am, even though the actual ceremony didn’t start til 9:30 or so.  Luckily the weather was amazing, which was a welcome change from my high school graduation, which was supposed to be outdoors, but was moved to the Sussex Tech auditorium because of rain.  Not so for college graduation, however.  It was sunny, 70s, and not a cloud in the entire blue sky as we all processionaled (processed? proceded?) onto the turf.  The big ceremony only lasted about 2 hours, then the graduates all broke down for the departmental ceremonies held at various locations scattered about campus.  The Chem one was in the Social Science Building atrium, which is a nice atmosphere.  Much better than the TW dining hall, where the Bio graduation was.  Anyway, with a class of only twenty graduating seniors, we had a nice short and personalized ceremony, where Dr. Bradley announced each graduate’s minor or concentration and what their plans for the future were.  After we all received our diploma cases (which did not actually contain diplomas) we had a photo op, then we got to mingle.  Mom, Dad, PJ and Katie were all there, along with Uncle Ted and Uncle Marshall, who had taken time off to drive down from Connecticut to attend.  So I got to see a lot of my family, say goodbye and thank you to professors, and congratulate my fellow graduates.  I also made sure to take a trip over to TW to see my Bio friends and to see Dr. Norvell again. 

And that was it.  Then my family left and I moved myself out of Wolfe and back into Centennial, while most everyone else drove home.  So I am now an official TCNJ alumnus.  The one thing that sucks is that track season extends beyond graduation, so that I couldn’t drink or stay up or over-indulge myself in Senior Week the way everyone else did because I still had races to run.   I ran IC4As today (in only 3:56 which is not what i had hoped for) and I am racing at Villanova on Monday.  After that, who knows, it really all depends on how Monday goes.  But regardless, I am currently no longer a TCNJ student-athlete, just a TCNJ athlete.