Women Studies graduation
It went well, of course. Despite the spectrum of nervous-to-fretting-to-OMGPANIC! that I ran through during that final week there ... even *I* knew that there weren't likely to be any catastrophic mishaps. Of course that still didn't stop me from running around like a headless chicken and fussing over everything in sight, starting at 10:00 in the morning, when I opened up the room for decorating, until 4:00 when everything was finished and cleaned up.
The ceremony, I hear, was fantastic; a lot of people in the department called it the best they'd ever seen. That wasn't really a result of my planning efforts, I think - if I'm being totally honest, I'd say that the way I pulled everything together in such a short time was pretty impressive, but the end result wasn't a fancier or flashier ceremony than anything that happened before. Decorations were nice, food was nice, etc.; but they weren't anything extraordinary.
What made it, I think, was the student input. Almost by accident, the bulk of the ceremony was performed by the graduating students. We wanted some sort of musical performance, and it just so happens that one of our majors is in a rock band, and one of our minors is a music major (who sang at the University commencement ceremony). We wanted a speaker, but when I asked my favorite professor, she said she would only do it if it didn't take away from the students - so we ended up doing the collaborative student speech I talked about earlier. (And since I was part of that, yeah, I'll take partial credit. XD)
The audience, both friends and family and the faculty, seemed to really enjoy the student content. We even got a standing ovation from the faculty after our speeches, which I really appreciated because I highly, highly respect the members of the faculty.
I don't remember much of the rest of the ceremony, though, because it passed in a haze of low-level worry about what might go wrong, mixed in with nervous anticipation for my speech. I sort of wish I could watch it all over again so I could actually enjoy it.
We did have a few minor mishaps - including the department chair mixing up the order of events, and some of the food getting stored in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. XD But that was it, and everything else went well. There were also a ton of people willing to help out - classmates, faculty, as well as friends and family. Thanks to kyonkun and zinjadu for helping with decorations and food, and to ratzeo for running (and bringing!) our sound system. ♥
Hopefully now I'll actually be able to pay attention to other things again. _o_
The ceremony, I hear, was fantastic; a lot of people in the department called it the best they'd ever seen. That wasn't really a result of my planning efforts, I think - if I'm being totally honest, I'd say that the way I pulled everything together in such a short time was pretty impressive, but the end result wasn't a fancier or flashier ceremony than anything that happened before. Decorations were nice, food was nice, etc.; but they weren't anything extraordinary.
What made it, I think, was the student input. Almost by accident, the bulk of the ceremony was performed by the graduating students. We wanted some sort of musical performance, and it just so happens that one of our majors is in a rock band, and one of our minors is a music major (who sang at the University commencement ceremony). We wanted a speaker, but when I asked my favorite professor, she said she would only do it if it didn't take away from the students - so we ended up doing the collaborative student speech I talked about earlier. (And since I was part of that, yeah, I'll take partial credit. XD)
The audience, both friends and family and the faculty, seemed to really enjoy the student content. We even got a standing ovation from the faculty after our speeches, which I really appreciated because I highly, highly respect the members of the faculty.
I don't remember much of the rest of the ceremony, though, because it passed in a haze of low-level worry about what might go wrong, mixed in with nervous anticipation for my speech. I sort of wish I could watch it all over again so I could actually enjoy it.
We did have a few minor mishaps - including the department chair mixing up the order of events, and some of the food getting stored in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. XD But that was it, and everything else went well. There were also a ton of people willing to help out - classmates, faculty, as well as friends and family. Thanks to kyonkun and zinjadu for helping with decorations and food, and to ratzeo for running (and bringing!) our sound system. ♥
Hopefully now I'll actually be able to pay attention to other things again. _o_