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June 12, 2005

Seattle Times Storytelling

From today's Seattle Times:

It was wet and blustery for the University of Washington commencement ceremonies yesterday at Husky Stadium, but the students were not the slightest bit interested in wrapping things up early. After the commencement address by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, UW President Mark Emmert took a voice vote: Stay to hear their names called and to walk across the dais, or head for shelter? The result wasn't even close. Cheers called for continuing.

Uh... that's a lovely story, but what was this reporter smoking? As a graduating student, I can quite confidently say that we were pretty much ALL interesting wrapping things up early. In fact, when asked, we screamed and shouted and made our wishes very clear. But the audience was the one screaming to continue, and so they did. Furthermore, the result seemed pretty close to me, but if there was a winner, it was the students. They continued anyway.

The result? The students simply started leaving. I stuck around to walk on stage, but I was in the second row of the B.A. candidates. There were a LOT more behind me, and as I walked off the stage, I headed for the exit. No way was I sticking around any further. My hat was ruined, by clothes soaked. My parents bought an Alumni shirt for me while they were waiting to meet me, so at least I could be partially dry. It was crazy, and once it started raining, absolutely nobody was paying any attention to what was going on. We just wanted out of there. Oh, but we weren't the SLIGHTEST bit interested in wrapping things up early.

Posted by March at June 12, 2005 04:03 AM