article on graduation

by yours truly. for our local paper.

here's some of it:

The gym is filled with hundreds of anxious relatives and friends, fidgeting in their seats and remarking over and over again about how they just can’t believe they’re graduating already, seems like it was only yesterday….The speakers, teachers, and administrators up on the dais sit up straight and rigid, the only signs of movement to adjust their mortarboards or slightly turn their heads to make a casual comment to the person next to them. Outside the gym are over four hundred teenagers and young adults, a mass of red and blue caps, gowns and tassels, waiting patiently (or impatiently) to walk the famous “walk” down the aisle and into their appropriate seats, whereupon each of their names will soon be called to come up to the stage and receive a token proclaiming this eventful night. As the students march down the aisle to a well-associated tune, many gasps and quiet cheers can be heard amongst the well-dressed crowd. The graduates seem to be very proper and precise in their movements up until the point when they are finally told they have officially graduated, and proceed to break free of the mold and celebrate in the ways that only graduates do...."