Marchin' on March

And so this is life after years and years of battling pubescent acne and making the average cut. The part where you stop living your life desperately to make the plot as twisted as your favorite Fox television series or at least as interesting as a Sweet Valley book, and just live as it is.

Memoirs this March.

Graduation days are always my perfect days -- the days that always go my way, because I feel and think so, and they never fail me. When something wrong goes my way, I always battle it out with a generous amount of positive energy. Something that I must be capable of doing in ordinary days I suppose. Haha!

For my and the rest of the graduates' expense, it better be a perfect day. It should be simply put, that we deserve this day, and this is me trying to avoid the sappy "the fruits of my four years of labor paid off" drama. Everyone for sure had their share of academic anxieties and dilemmas that even just the amount of nerve jitters and cold feet in waiting for the final list of graduates is enough to make us all be equal in the eyes of God (or the Dean).

Now this is me with my buddies Addie and Racine waiting in the growing crowd of attendees, minutes before the hooding ceremonies. You see, I had a big lunch.

I did my own make-up and had my hair done in a nearby salon. I settled for a simple chignon to go with my very clean make-up; no smokey eyes, no rosy cheekbones and no contoured nose bridge. This is one of the days where I settled for less to bring out more - at least, fashion and beauty wise.

Besides, walking in my favorite 4-inch pumps was enough of a brave move for me that day.

Cue candidates for graduation: Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts!
It was surreal, just like in high school. But by the time I'm standing in the long queue of graduates for Communication Arts and batchmates A-G are being called, the feeling overwhelmed me. There is too much in me that I can explode -- of love, of happiness, of sadness, of excitement, of fear of everything else that will follow. There are no words to sufficiently describe the mixture of feelings that occupy me in that little minutes where I stand there waiting to march up the stage with mommy and papa.
L: I wonder if Vice-Rector repeats the same congratulatory remarks 871 times for the 871 graduates that day? R: The screen projector at the right flashes the marching graduate and my organization had this cool thing going on; chargens for every TOMCAT volunteer! I'm a proud kitten and CATS (Circle of Talents) graduate. (Source)
And apparently, there are about five screen projectors under the tech-booth yes? They flash the yearbook pictures of the marching graduates too with respective honorable mention if there is any. Now that is something to keep us posted for waiting for the 871st graduate to come down the stage I guess? Nice try. Haha!
Gregorio, Mary Clarice Malay. May parangal :)
Now after we cheer and jeer for the last CA graduate, there is nothing else to do, obviously. Others exchanged yearbook pictures with their friends, some go out and eat or to just merely escape the ceremony.
Harry Potter fans kept looking at their watches, asking each other if this will take longer 'cause they're running late for potions class. (Academic robes. Haha!)
My brother tried to be a good cameraguy that day even if he's at the upperbox b seats. Here is me, Ana, Lean, Racine, Josh and Addie all smiles.
Golden moment: To sing the university hymn for the last time.
Now to realize that you just earned your degree and you are officially unemployed, creeps me all over.
Then there's chaos in the house. Then the Communication Arts department-chair, sitting along the faculty members, came running towards his new graduates.
Communication Arts graduates crying, and hugging and jumping. There is our department chair in the middle giving everyone he sees a hug. Literally!
The parents gave their kids, who seemed to be just resurrected from the death called college, a time to be merry. Young adults waiting to be embraced by employment are all smiling and posing for cameras. There are flashes all over. "Congratulations" whispered and shouted, too many times.
No words :) Addie, Josh, Carlo and Racine. (Source)
There are too many pictures taken, with other groups, with other friends, with other people and its just a shame I can't post them just because they are too many. And its not yet a considerable amount because I even failed to see my friends from other majors that day!
4CA2 - 2012! (Source)
Much later that night, I left these skanks a message in our fb group that almost got me in tears. Just a few words that weigh a lot of feelings: Good night CA2. Mami-miss ko kayo :)

And an obligatory photo-wall photo, without my 4-inch pumps.
After the ceremony, and the chaos, and the returning of togas, there is an innate longing to linger for a while, for no reason. I bet this is just a desire to preserve a moment of hours so perfect that changed our lives for good. There are many things I failed to do! Like hug and jump together with my friends from Journalism, have a small talk with my happy crush, take a couple of pictures with my parents (they are not camera friendly) and have my picture taken with Ate Yema (you know her if you're from UST!) who always brightens up my day by reminding me that I'm pretty besides the stress -- and who bid me goodbye and told me she will miss me and my rings that she always checks out. It's like I'm a jar full of memories that was just opened up by graduation and all the memories came pouring out in danger. I stayed a while longer hoping that I can jar them all up close. But this does not make my day any less perfect. Like what I said earlier, I deserve this day. There is nothing not to be thankful of.
Above all these, upon going home and feeling that that piece of metal around my neck is just mere metal and that the happy ceremonies are all over, I remain happy. For this one reason that always remain above all and which deserve to be mentioned lastly in this blog post. I am happy that I made my mommy and papa proud, as well as my siblings who worked hard especially for me. They have managed the hard times and pushed their limits to test to let me finish college and graduating as a Cum Laude is just on thing I can thank them with. With that I'm happy, until now, and until I've unfolded my future ahead that is bright.
This is my tale last March 30, 2012. Congratulations Faculty of Arts and Letters batch 2012! We deserve this :)
(Photos linked back to their sources are from Ma'am Faye Martel, Racine Castro and Lean Manalo).