Remembering Graduation Day

June 5, 2005 had to be the hottest graduation day in the history of graduation days. Not only were temperatures reaching into the upper nineties but my Principal had the brilliant idea to hold our graduation ceremony inside our school gymnasium, which wouldn't of been a half-bad idea if the AC wasn't broken.

My graduating class consisted of 280 students from the surrounding five towns, add six members of family and friends per student, and a dark green graduation gown and cap and you have some very hot and angry graduates.

As we lined up at the backdoor to get ready to march down the aisle we reluctantly put our gowns on. As I crossed the threshold and entered thy gym I immediately started to sweat. You could feel at least a ten degrees difference. We marched to our seats, we were instructed to sit down, and the speeches began. I felt the sweat dripping down my face at an indescribable rate, and fanning myself with a graduation itinerary just wasn't cutting it. The girl sitting next me, who was sweating just as bad, wouldn't stop complaining about how bad her graduate picture was going to come out, which just made my temperature rise with annoyance and the time tick by even slower.

Eventually they finally began calling out names to receive diplomas. One by one we walked up to the podium, shook hands with the principal, and grabbed that little sheet of paper that we have worked so hard for. When Jessica, the last person to receive her diploma, made it back to her seat, row by row we stood up and threw our hands in the air and did 'the wave' (like seen in a packed stadium during a sporting event). We threw our caps in the air, unzipped our robes and ran out of the room to the booming cheer of our loved ones, and we never looked back. We didn't care about the finishing speeches, we had our diploma, and that is all we needed.