I went to Gina’s graduation at UAB today. Parking was nuts – I had to park several blocks away. But, had I not, I would have never known that Snoop Dogg (sp?) Had a family member graduating from UAB! I walked in with him and his family:
I wish I had a better picture so that you could truly experience the full glory of his full length fur coat AND fur pants that went with his white top had so well. But, Chris told me to be very careful going downtown alone, and I figured that it wouldn’t fit into that “very careful” parameter to walk up to him and say, “Excuse me sir, but you look just like the violent, pot-smoking, womanizing rap star know as Snoop Dogg. Would you mind if I took your picture so that I can post it on my blog?”.
No, that would never do. So I just hurried on in front of him, then took a picture with my zoom from waaaay at the top of the stairs of Bartow Arena.
So once I got inside, I was sitting there reminiscing. It was five years ago today that it was my turn to graduate, getting the same good ole’ accounting degree that Gina was receiving. FIVE YEARS. Wow, I’m old.
Anyway, this especially reminded me of my graduation:
I remember looking up and seeing all of those balloons. It doesn’t matter if it’s Kindergarten graduation or Ph.D graduation, balloons are always exciting!!
So after much searching and photographing the wrong girl a couple of times, I finally found Gina with my handy 15x zoom:
Since I had a good angle to take pictures for her, I thought I’d get a few. However, she always looked unhappy to be there. . . 
. . . or ticked at the world. . . 
oh yeah . . . and I didn’t feel bad when I got bored and sleepy, because she was doing that in half my pictures too. Here it comes. . .
Full blown yawn, even while clapping!
OK. So enough of making fun of Gina. I really am super, super proud of her – she worked very hard for this!
More reminiscing. All of the deans in their fancy dresses:
Oh and the program. After Gina walked through, I spent the rest of the individual graduate announcements perusing it. Especially the names of the thesises. Theses? Thesi? Whatever the plural of Thesis is. Obviously I never got to the level of college where I had the opportunity to use the plural of the term “Thesis”.
So 99.999% of them were completely unintelligible titles, with even more unintelligible subtitles. Such as:
Carbon Nanotube/Epoxy Nanocomposites: Effect of Interfacial Chemistry and Processing On Molecular Mobility, Cure Behavior, Morphology and Properties.
TRP-ing Down a TRK: A New Role for Transient Receptor Potential Channels as Novel Mediators of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Actions at both Sides of the Excitatory Synapse.
The Developmental Functions of BDNF and MeCP2 in Dendritic and Synaptic Structure.
Role of the gM/gN Glycoprotein Complex in the Final Assembly and Egress of the Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV).
Ok. Got the point?
But then, thankfully, I got the Frankie Michelle Bradley’s thesis:
Picking up Rocks.
That’s right. No subtitle, no unintelligible words. Nothing. I love it!
And Jacob David Melvin went a step further with the short thesis naming idea:
Heroes.
I am sure that Mr. Melvin’s Thesis was quite as deserving as all of the rest of them, but the title sounds like it could be the title of a first grade paper as well! Which makes me like it. Simplicity is completely underrated in the thesis naming world.
Oh yeah, and if you were curious as to what the balloons looked like when being released, I will leave you with these exciting pictures. Exciting, I daresay, even for the author of the thesis Expression and Function of Aquaporins in Malignant and Non-Malignant Astrocytes:
Congratulations to Gina!
These pictures were just one more confirmation that I was, indeed, not meant to go to college. Balloons falling on my head and all around me would have made me a nervous wreck. yes, that’s right, I have a balloon phobia. I’m much better about it that I used to be, but that many balloons above me and then around me would not have made for a happy graduation for me.
Great photos! I don’t think I’ve ever made it through a graduation ceremony (mine or anyone else’s) without yawning a couple of times! My sister’s graduation from UCLA was pretty fun. The grads hit a beach ball amongst themselves the whole time!
I’m glad I graduated, but after it was my turn to walk, I was super bored and ready to go home. :) I’m happy I walked, but it still doesn’t feel real. :) Oh, and my uncle made me cry afterward. I was doing so good. He reminded me of all the difficulties that I had faced along the way, and how I had to overcome them all to graduate. Then, after that he reminded me that Granny would be proud. I was such a mess after that. Thank you so much for coming and posting this blog. :) It means a lot that you came to see me walk across the stage. :) :) :) Thanks.
I passed audit. Yippee. :) :) I was so so so stressed about that class that I couldn’t sleep for 4 nights in a row. That final was killer. :)
Oh, and I made an A in Maurat’s class. :) :) Yippee. :)
And of course you already know my Tax grade. I think. :) :)
It’s interesting what you’ll find when googling yourself. The thesis titles you mentioned for their brevity, Picking up Rocks and Heroes, are both from Masters students in Creative Writing. In other words, we don’t need fancy bullshit titles to tell our stories. Might as well get to the point, right? I’m glad you enjoyed the simplicity. By the way, if you’d like to read some of Heroes, check out the upcoming issue 24 of Post Road.
Regards.
It’s also interesting what extremely old and forgotten posts people will find by googling themselves! I hardly remembered writing this..
Bravo on being to the point with your title!