Picking up from yesterday –
It was kind of interesting coming in as someone who hadn’t actually been on campus in many years. I’d been away since 2010, and I’d finished wholly remotely over the pandemic, and hadn’t been in undergrad for 9 months.
It’s a big enough school that there were enough people who didn’t know each other, that I didn’t feel I was completely unique in that… But we were separated my major, so many people knew at least someone else in our little groups.
Not me though!
I did have fun chatting people up though. And then, as I am balancing on the intersection of wanting tons of representation of women everywhere, but also wanting to be ‘so special’ since barely any women dual major in Music Production & Engineering and Electronic Production & Design, I was curious if perhaps I’d be the only girl in the small group of people who are dual majors in such technical things.
And there was one other girl.
Considering I lean more toward the side of wanting more representation than wanting to be ‘special,’ I was happy for her.
So, we were all led back to this kind of ‘holding area’ place, and then someone with a clipboard came through and was like “tassels on the left! Tassels on the left everybody!”
Now, I’d looked it up, and everything I saw said tassels are supposed to start on the right and be moved to the left. And all of us were kind of looking at each other unsure as some voices kind of murmured that.
It is sort of funny to me that it could’ve been literally anyone telling us that. Like, just because someone has a clipboard doesn’t necessarily mean they’re an authority.
I stubbornly kept mine on the right and was like “I’ll figure this out later.”
So, anyway, we were all led into the seating.
As soon as I saw my dad, I waved like a 5-year-old at kindergarten graduation.
We sat, and you know, it was a graduation ceremony, as you’d expect. Speeches (which my dad seemed to love, as he kept quoting the jokes and things later, which I found endearing) were given.
It was cute because they kept referring to us as “Gen Z,” and it’s like, “yep. Mmm hmmm. This is me. Part of the new generation. Absolutely definitely not some graduate in my 30s hahaha.”
So, I liked feeling young for a hot second, and feeling all the hope around me.
As we walked up, they’d given us buttons with our numbers on them to stay in line. We had to have them attached to our robes. I’d taken mine off when I sat down, as we were clearly in order at that point.
But someone at the side of the stage was there to collect them. So, I guess I didn’t have to worry that they were gonna have me go on stage with a button, but oh well, I got rid of mine early.
And then I kept my tassel on the right for a long side, but the stage configuration was ‘backwards’ from how you’d expect it to be at a graduation, like we walked the opposite way it would usually be set-up. (I don’t know why. I’m assuming there was a reason, but who knows.)
Anyway, we’d pass official Berklee people along the way and they would tell everyone to put the tassel on the right. The person at the last station would physically move it if you had it on the right. So, I just put it in the back.
I didn’t want it on the left early! That doesn’t make any sense. (I may be too much of a stubborn person, but whatever.
Anyway, I’ll pick up here tomorrow!