Graduation nostalgia
There's no doubt about it: the Hillsboro community is smack-dab in the middle of graduation season.
With Hillsboro High School's seniors out the door Sunday afternoon, and Tabor's seniors about to get their diplomas Saturday morning, the aroma of accomplishment is in the air.
And I couldn't help but think, as I watched the maroon-gowned students cross the stage on Sunday at the big gym, that there's something about graduations that make a person extremely nostalgic.
I've been through a couple in my lifetime, the most recent one being two years ago. Trust me, it's pretty cool to say that you graduated from college in the year 2000.
But the graduation I remember most fondly was high school. The year was 1996, and I received my diploma with a whopping six other seniors at the Abilene Baptist Academy graduation ceremony.
Yes, we were a small class — a far cry from my brother's graduation from Salina South, where the ceremony was held in the Bicentennial Center. But size is relative.
I still remember how hot those blue gowns were, and how none of us could figure out how that white crescent-shaped piece of fabric fit into the equation. I think it was taped somewhere around the neck.
Leaving high school is an emotional thing — and, of course, I had to start crying when I gave my senior testimony. I think I cried a lot that day.
Four years later, it was graduation time again, and my primary emotion was relief: I'd slugged through four years of college at Bob Jones University.
Now the robes were rented and considerably heavier, and everybody's tassel was a different color. Everyone laughed at the manly guy music majors who now sported pastel-pink tassels hanging from their mortarboards.
Thanks to my last name, I think I was the fourth or fifth person from the end of processional line, so I didn't get to hear much of the music — that happens when you're following 900 other students into the auditorium.
There were no tears this time — instead, this huge grin broke out across my face as I walked into the huge building.
Both days were vastly different — different schools, different time zones, different circumstances. But I remember the details so vividly, right down to checking my e-mail for the last time in the Alumni Building before I left South Carolina.
Graduation day goes by so fast — but somehow, tiny details stay forever in your mind.
If you're one of the lucky ones who gets to say, this year, that you're a member of the class of 2002, savor the moments. You deserve it.
— JENNIFER WILSON
