POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE
I like graduations. To me they occupy the same sense of power and responsibility - as matters of transition - with baptisms and weddings. Not only are graduations symbolic of high commitments (though probably not as transcending as one proferred to a faith or a spouse), they come about as new beginnings, too. Hence they are called commencements.
Graduations, as if by design, usually share this moment of transition with the season, occuring at the waning moments of spring. And thus we imagine fresh graduates uttering the words, "Uh, here comes reality" more than they wanted to say, "Uh, here comes summer vacation".
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"Uh, here comes reality". Now I remember the speech of a certain Eric, graduating from Ithaca Colege in NY this past spring where he threw a glimmering question to his fellow candidates (and probably to all of us outside of that circle) that somehow made me think way after the fact: "Where are we?"
Eric represented all students, graduating or not, who must have been annoyed by posturings from all sectors of society who have bamboozled them with advises of this kind, Get ready to face the real world, guys. And so on that day, he asked, "If that (meaning, the professional world) is the real world, then, where are we?"
Where were/are the students indeed if they're not in the real world? Is school some unreal - or worse, artificial - world?
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I have attended many commencement exercises myself, and quite a few actually were my own. And I got some memories that should be relayed, either because of their exalting quality, or because they need to be taken out of the graduation exercises reservoir from this moment on.
In Grade School, a classmate took his last step from a flight of stairs on his way to the principal standing in the middle of the stage to get his diploma when he fell flat on his face. The poor guy's last name was Dumdum and I now realize he was probably trying to live up to his name. At a perfect occasion.
In High School, we were all resplendent in our silk barongs and ready to enchant the night while facing the magnificent stage constructed for the event when suddenly there was heavy downpour. The only thing remaining fresh in me that night was the sampaguita lei hanging on my neck.
In College, only five of about 30 from my major went on to attend.
Post college? Well, there were quite a few celebrities...
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I heard this story more than once, though it still remains unconfirmed. George (Dyords) Javier, who in college at the Ateneo was already a known comic, was allegedly asked by the rector (?) not to do anything foolish on his graduation day. Javier said Sure, but asked permission to take a bow before the audience. The request sounded kind of plain and manageable that the authorities found no justifiable reason to deny it. And so on that graduation night, after George Javier received his diploma, he took his bow. Or should I say, His Bow. Off went his hair, with the cap still on, and the only thing more shining than his bald pate was the moment his father screamed from the stands, That's my boy!
Again, this story remains unconfirmed.
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In high school, the salutatorian of the class before mine did not attend the graduation rites because, bless his soul, he did not graduate valedictorian.
In one Ivy League school, a friend of a friend did not go to hers even if she was their valedictorian. When my perplexed self asked her why, she quipped nonchalantly, I do not need the affirmation.
(I have yet to meet a person more intellectually secure.)
In one Manila University, I remember attending this mushiest commencement I have ever seen. There was a part where candidates had to go up to their parents, who then proceeded to place the hoods on their necks, and in that soupy moment the Paul Anka song started playing in the air -
Good morning yesterday
You wake up and time had slipped away
And suddenly it's hard to find
The memories you left behind
Remember, do you remember?
That was one unforgettable soup.
In Miami, one High School plays popular (contemporary) but meaningful songs as their graduation song selected by the graduating students, and one year when they had Wings beneath My Wings I was told nobody left the rites with a dry eye. teary-weary. Then some years later, there was furor when the school authorities denied the students' request to have this Stevie Nick's song (I forgot the title but it goes something like, And time makes older, children get older, and I'm getting older, too.) The request was denied because, as the report went, Nicks had questionable reputation. (???!!!What has that got to do with graduation???!!!)
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The NY Times published, a few issues ago, excerpts of speeches by some celebrities in commencement exercises all around the nation (those who spoke included Pres. Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Billy Joel, Jodie Foster and Michael J. Fox) - and the one I liked best was that delivered at NYU by Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy who said -
"Think of people around the world, and particularly in Africa, who have no clean water - and the job falls to women - must spend six, eight hours a day just in trying to bring clean water to their children.
"Eight billion hours a year of human effort are spent just in bringing water. And when I heard the statistic, sitting like you are in an audience, i thought, "Well, he must have said eight million." Then I thought, "maybe it's 80 million." It's eight billion hours a year of wasted effort because the water is often contaminated when it gets there. This isn't rocket science. You can fix this."
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I remember attending a friend's graduation in Columbia University some years ago. During the procesion, I noticed some of them wearing tassels (just like the cord attached to some very formal curtains) hanging from their right shoulders. The tassels have different patterns and colors, obviously for distinction, and each color or pattern must be symbolizing something different from another. I asked one Caucasian graduate what hers signify and without looking at me she responded, with a head so upright I thought her forehead was almost parallel to the sky, "Honors Society". "Oh wow!", I replied, "I thought you were the suicidal prom queen."
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And all these actual experiences in life find magnificent version in literature, like in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man where Hon. Rev. Homer P. Barbee addresses the students after their gleeful song, Lead me, raise me, to a rock that is higher than I.
Ahhh, life. Ahh, literature. Ahhh graduation.
The end.
