07 Mayıs 2018, Pazartesi
saat: 18:57
I'm not one for ceremony. I've seen enough weddings, swearings-in, and inaugurations to know that nothing spells boredom quite like folks in formal wear exercising the powers vested in them. But I love commencements. I remember telling S. that I was more excited about Dr. B walking with me and hooding me on my graduation day than I'd ever be about walking down the aisle on my wedding day -and I think it says a lot about me as a person. To me, a commencement is a big formal party and a well-organized ritual at the same time, where we don the most expensive garments we own (has anyone seen the price tag of a doctoral robe from one's own institution?), blast "Pomp and Circumstance" and take lots and lots of photos --even if this may also mean broiling beneath the sun in a ridiculous hat and yard upon yard of dark velvet in a football stadium in the American South.
Because commencement addresses always tell you to follow your dreams, this year we got the inspiration and combined this advice with spring celebrations. As four "new" faculty who sat in the back row and did not pay too much attention to students we haven’t seen (let alone taught) before, we had the luxury of thinking about our dreams without being noticed by senior faculty and drawing our wishes on piece of paper to be tied under a rosebush after the ceremony (which ended around 10:30 pm on Saturday). I always believe hopes and dreams should be collected, put into words and pictures and moved out of your heart to a body of water or a rose garden at least once a year, and thankfully my colleagues joined me in my craziness to do that all together. It ended up being some form of spring cleaning, or a mark of the “slow beginning of something really lovely” in each of our lives. Even though it wasn’t my commencement, and I was only marginally invested in it, I too experienced love, support and community on a grand scale, and my heart was full.
“But things work out, you know. Even if it doesn’t feel okay for a long time, or even if it feels like things will never be okay again, everything works out in the end.”
