ASU Commencement 2009

After an interval of uninteresting events following my arrival in Phoenix, it was time for the first event marking my sister's graduation. This would be the commencement, at which all the graduates, administrators and faculty gather. The graduation itself is divided into smaller groups, so that all the graduates can be recognized.

So I drove over to my sister's boyfriend's place, and met them there. I was easily able to penetrate the apartment complex's layers of security without help from the boyfriend. We talked casually while waiting for the rest of our party. Dad came, but Mom was late, and he stayed to wait for her while the rest of us went ahead.

The plan was to take the light rail to the stadium, as there is a station by the apartment complex. There was a little uncertainty about the best station to get off at, but we seemed to work it out.

We were under the impression that we would have to wait in line outside the stadium for an hour and a half and go through strenuous security, but those concerns were not entirely founded. The lines moved fairly briskly, and the security was certainly less severe than at an airport.

Inside, it was hot, but otherwise good. Soon enough, my parents arrived, and we enjoyed the preliminary parts of the event, which were largely school musical acts. Eventually, Dash Cooper and his band played Magic Carpet Ride and Eighteen. He was followed by his father Alice Cooper, who played the obligatory School's Out For Summer.

That was followed by the graduation itself. There were introductions of the faculty from different schools of the university, as well as a group of graduates from 1959. There were also some introductions of particularly notable students who graduated this year with great distinction or who overcame adversity to graduate as such from high school with plans to attend ASU in the fall.

Eventually, the big man had his turn to speak. He was introduced by the university president, who took half as much time to introduce Obama as the president himself took to speak. The introduction was a ringing endorsement of the president- somewhat surprising, considering the school deemed him unworthy of an honorary degree, which is generally considered obligatory for such speakers.

The president's speech was a good one. It was noted that he did not seem to be using a teleprompter, though one was there for him. The content was good- inspiring at times, humorous at others. It felt pretty great to be there in the stadium with him.

After the speech by Obama, we headed out, finding the crowds leaving much larger than those on the way in. I reasoned that while the school staggered arrival times on the tickets, they could hardly do so for departures. We found it necessary to board a bus bridging the gap caused by a closed light rail station. We then board an actual train, and walk from there to the apartment complex to get to our cars. I had left a jacket upstairs, which I retrieved before leaving.

Now, my phone had been acting up. I think that the battery gauge was mis-calibrated somehow, so I thought I had fully charged it, but it wore down as if it were charged more like a quarter or a half of the way. It was done by the time I was ready to go home, so I couldn't use my gps. I just went to washington, took that to 44th st, and then followed that north to Shea, which I took over to Scottsdale Rd. From there, I went a bit south until I came to the right neighborhood road to get to the house where I'm staying. A circuitous rout, perhaps, but a functional one for someone sometimes rather poor at navigation.

I then went to bed, having slept just an hour in the preceding night.