Class of 2016

The previous post about brings us to graduation, minus a few things I might go back and write about later if I feel like it. First things first: I graduated. It was not without much ceremony, pomp, and circumstances beyond our control, because what would be a graduation from Cornell without getting sunburned at Convocation and being caught in the middle of a thunderstorm at Commencement? Yeah, that happened.

My family arrived on Friday evening, after getting a first-ever flat tire within an hour of leaving the house. Maybe that should have been a clue it was going to be an interesting weekend. Saturday morning, we joined thousands of other families and students at Schoellkopf Field to hear performances by the band and chorus, a bunch of random people’s speeches, and James Franco, after which everyone left. My family stayed until the bitter, salty¹ end. Yes, it was hot, but the last guy, whoever he was, deserved to be heard too.

Convocation at Schoellkopf

I spent the last of my BRB’s at Trillium for special graduation weekend lunches, then we went to Watkins Glen. The gorge trail was insanely busy, with people doing such things as pushing strollers, letting hoards of children run/stop as they pleased, and leisurely strolling down the path two by two. I generally don’t mind how people choose to walk/hike at state parks unless it’s dangerous, but you probably shouldn’t, out of general courtesy, center your stroller in the middle of the trail or block the entire path when it’s that busy.

Falls at Watkins Glen.
The people density is crazy high for a hike.

Anyway, the hike was still nice, especially at the end where the crowds thinned out a lot. We ended the day with burgers at the Glenwood Pines. Nothing fancy, but they make solid burgers. I generally refuse to eat fast food burgers, so if I’ll eat it, it has to have some minimum quality. With that resounding endorsement², I returned to my apartment for my last night(!) there.

The next morning was humid and overcast, but Cornell made the decision to go ahead with outdoor Commencement, so all six thousand or so of us lined up on the arts quad to make the trek over to the stadium. The weather held . . . for about half an hour, when the engineering school was getting seated. We sat in the pouring rain while the remaining students entered, sat through speeches while thunder rumbled in the distance, and got more soaked. Finally, after several cycles of kind of clearing but not really, the ceremony was cut short, all six thousand degrees were conferred at once, and we were dismissed to our department ceremonies. Ours was, naturally, in Olin. Where else?

We were split up by design group, because Olin doesn’t have a lecture hall large enough for all ninety-six of us plus families. The design professors were tasked with saying something nice about every student, we were presented with a fake diploma, and with that, we were done.

We hung around for snacks and pictures, but after four years, 130+ credits, and countless hours in Olin, we had our Chemical Engineering degrees. It felt . . . good. And strange, with a side of weird thrown in. But mostly good.

¹From all the sweat. It was ninety degrees with full sun.
²I really do like their burgers. And they have a fun hidden object placemat.