Sunday, June 01, 2003

Pomp And Circumstance I'm proud to report that the Eagle Pass Class of 2003 are now officially high school students no longer.  Yes, it's true.  I was there last night to witness the whole shebang.  I arrived shortly after 7:00 p.m. to insure a quality seat (though I did notice several empty seats next to the stage.  I should have pulled a few strings and snagged one of those).  I got to watch the graduates lining up.  I got to watch them file in.  And file in some more.  And then I even got a chance to watch them sit down.  Exciting?  You're damn right! The weather was outstanding if you have a sweating fetish.  At the start of the program it was sunny and slightly above 100 degrees.  As tortuous as it was for those of us up in the stands, I can just imagine the smell of teen spirit down on the field underneath those burnt orange robes.  But that didn't detract from the magic of the night.  No sir. Amanda and Suzy gave their salutatorian and valedictorian speeches respectively.  Amanda's focused on pulling her classmates out of the deep, dark well that she envisions Eagle Pass to be.  Suzy focused on where she's going off to college and thanking everyone (except me) who helped to get her there.  As graduation speeches go, they were ok.  Much better than the ones I had to sit through back in 1989.  I remember my valedictorian's speech focused on robots of all things. The Honorable Judge Ludlum gave the main address.  She's the woman who was kind enough to be the guest speaker at the induction ceremony I hosted a couple of weeks ago.  She gave a pretty blunt speech last night, mentioning, among other things, how flipping burgers wasn't beneath any of them.  Which is true.  The salutatorian is currently employed in the burger-flipping industry. Then came the handing out of diplomas.  I took several pictures of that because you've got some time to kill when 500 or so people have to walk across a stage one-by-one.  But none of the pictures came out very well.  So just close your eyes and imagine one orange person after another walking across a stage, being handed a diploma, posing for a picture with someone they don't know, then walking off, and you'll get the idea.  That part of the show took over an hour.  Right after the P's, I gave up and made my way down to the field. I'll tell you something that was insane about the whole affair:  no one was selling water.  I'm no Bill Gates and I certainly lack the entrepreneurial spirit of most, but even I could recognize the killing that could have been made off of any kind of chilled liquids.  Instead the concession stand was hawking yearbooks.  From what I saw, they could have easily raked in more money that one night from water than they did all semester in yearbooks.  If I'm still here next year, I'm going into the water-selling business.  I did manage to make it onto the field once the stage walking came to an end.  I had a few cards to give away, and in the mass of humanity that is the class of 2003 and their loved ones, I located Amanda and Marcela and gave them what every graduate hopes to receive:  cash.  As you can see, they both seem happy with my choice of gifts. So there you have it:  Graduation 2003.  Not the best commencement I've ever attended, but certainly not the worst.  It was great to see some of my former students finally get their diplomas, though I couldn't remember half of their names (luckily someone dutifully called out each one for my benefit).  That may have been the last graduation I ever attend in Eagle Pass, though.  And if I do ever go to one again, I won't be in the stands unless I'm carrying an ice chest of bottled water going for $3.00 a pop. Related link: Eagle Pass Alumni Webpage 10:43:32 AM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.