Breakaway

Warning: this is an EXTREMELY long blog, and my writing style may not keep you engaged as much as say, Stephanie Meyer’s.

Yesterday, I graduated.

To understand why this is so cool for me, you need to know that after high school, I only went to UVSC because my mom told me that she wouldn’t help pay for schooling anywhere else unless I went into a music program. She will tell you today that this is untrue, but my memory is better than hers.

Because I didn’t really want to be there, I didn’t care how well I did. I didn’t really have a major. I got TERRIBLE grades. I missed classes on a regular basis. When I would get sinus infections, I’d use them as excuses to justify missing a week of class. I also had professors that made me stop coming to class: the 7-11 manager who worked the night shift and slept through English class whenever I DID go, the journalism teacher who had worked for Senator Hatch as a press agent or something and never let us forget it, the music technology teacher who had us waste the first several weeks of class doing mundane things like using simple digital piano technology to make arrangements of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, the feminazi history teacher who flat-out lied to me about departmental policies (it was fun catching her in the lie, though), the crusty old anatomy teacher who would get in our faces and yell reproductive terms to try and gross us out, the communications teacher who told us how great the TV show Oz was because of all the penis it showed (do you remember that, Heather & Wendy? *shudder*)

UVSC was turning out to NOT be the school for me. The only teachers/classes I remember liking were Rick Moody’s intro to film, Tim Slover’s playwriting, and Norma Gould’s psychology of interpersonal relationships.

I had a rotten GPA. So bad, in fact, that I was put on academic probation a couple times, meaning that if I didn’t bring my grades up the next semester, I could have been suspended. After the first one, I brought my grades up. After the next one, I dropped out of school, because I was really angry at the fact that I got some bad grades I actually didn’t deserve for once. I also realized that I was wasting time and money.

After almost 5 years, I decided to go back, because I heard that UVSC was going to become a university soon, and the quality of their classes was increasing (it couldn’t get worse). I also heard that they were getting an education program in the theatre department and said department was doing some high quality work.

I went back, and I rocked it. I got a 4.0 and made the dean’s list almost every semester. I ended up taking my rotten GPA from 5 years before and raising it to the point that I graduated with honors.

Now you know how big of a personal accomplishment this was for me, here’s a rundown of how my day was:

I drove to school listening to parts of my best-of Pop/Rock/Punk playlist on shuffle and heard great stuff like Kelly’s “Breakaway”. I arrived for the commencement and lined up in the corridors of Hell, aka the McKay Events Center. It was disgustingly hot. We were sweating just standing around. My BFF (forever), Sara, and I had decided to wear fun shoes, so she wore sparkly green Chuck Taylors and I wore my Batman ones.

After an eternity of waiting, we suddenly heard music, and the people in charge started telling us to hurry into our single file lines. The School of the Arts was lined up at the front, so we ended up being on the 4th row for the ceremony. President Monson was there to receive an honorary doctorate and speak, and he brought along Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf. As we marched out to our places, we passed them. I had a “holy crap, there’s President Eyring” moment and right as I got to him, I smiled and did a “hey, how’s it going” type of head acknowledgement. He did it right back. Then I took a step and had the exact same experience with President Uchtdorf. Awesome guys.

We were lucky enough to sit right by them, but first we had to stand and wait for all the graduates. Kyla used my phone to take pictures.

Sara ended up on the row behind Kyla, Anna Marie, and I, and we were lamenting the fact that BFFs (forever) had been separated. The guy next to Sara kindly informed us that the second F in BFF does, in fact, stand for “forever.” Sara looked at him like he was a dumb-a, but kindly informed him that it’s an inside joke making fun of people who actually say “BFF.” He thought about it for a second and then kindly informed us that it was indeed a funny joke.

The commencement turned out to be great, albeit a little long. I love hearing President Monson speak (this was the second time in as many weeks!) and being part of the first commencement since achieving university status was neat, too.

After commencement, we went straight to the School of the Arts convocation. I didn’t enjoy it as much. Lame choral numbers and a dance performance about killed it for me. Also, I had hoped that Chris Clark would read my name, but instead, some woman read it like Officer Hooks from Police Academy. Chris finished a set of names with the person RIGHT before me, and he was a stickler for the rules and only read the 10 he was supposed to do (she cheated and read more each time). James Christensen spoke, though, and he sounded oddly like Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” when he started giving us advice. That was fun. Also, Laura was the valedictorian for the School, so she spoke. When she first stood up, she asked me if she looked alright, and I gave her a thumbs-up.

After the convocation, it was over. I was graduated. I visited with family and friends and some professors, and then I stalled time for a little while before going to the graduation luau, held by the theatre department. It would have been much more fun if it hadn’t been so cold. It was nice to visit with most of my former theatre professors and fellow grads one last time. Katie Farmer gave me some great advice in case I want to go on to grad school and study theatre for young audiences. She also told me some new things that she’s discovered in her analysis model for comedies (blew my mind).

I was also presented with a signed, framed picture of the entire faculty/staff of the department. It was funny that some teachers I’ve had wrote boring, standard messages - literally the same on every single graduate’s picture (Sara checked). Others, however, wrote very nice, personal messages. I especially liked those from Katie, Chris, Joe, and Dave.

After the luau, it was time to party. I had several old friends over, and we just chilled, played Rock Band 2 & Guitar Hero: World Tour, watched The Spirit, and binged on lots of goodies.

It was a great day. It was MY day (inside joke).

Thanks to those who attended commencement: parents, Sister Emily, and Teri.

Thanks to those who attended convocation: parents, Sister Emily, Teri, Stephanie, Glenn, Allison, Lori, Alyssa, and Heidi C.

Thanks to those who came over last night: Teri, Stephanie, Matt, Emily S., Amesily, Melinda, Skylar, Adam, and Heidi C.

And thanks to all those who have sent me texts, Facebook messages, cards, and gifts. I love you all!!!

I’m not exactly sure what life has in store for me next, but at least I’m not facing it alone. And at least Sara and I no longer have to hide our secret identities as environmentally-conscious wizards.