This year, I stand by my notion that I'm not as nostalgic about the events of the past 12 months. However, when I went to my cousin Chris's 2 graduation ceremonies, I did get choked up at the Music Department and teary-eyed at the general commencement.
At the Music Dept. Commencement, I was blown away by the performances that started at 12, especially because one of them was my Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) from the Music 25A class I took this past semester. He had played his viola for us in class, but it was great to be able to see him play in front of an audience. I'm pretty sure that everything he wrote or arranged everything he played, which is amazing to me. I also watched a couple other spectacular performances by other students, all prior to the actual Music Commencement.
The actual Commencement was something else to be described. The speaker was a Ph.D. student that finally got his degree after being at Berkeley for 10 years. Later I found out that the DiDonato Family (who I know from high school), know him really well and were also there. The speech he made was impeccable, and I could not have imagined a more amusing speaker. He spoke a lot of truth about messing up, and not realizing whether or not you might like something you try (such as him moving to Berkeley). It was a great speech. On top of that, Chris, my cousin, became the 8th person in the last 3 generations of my family to become a Cal Grad. Go Bears :)
The next day was the large full-school Commencement, which was equally as amazing, if not, more. It was held in Haas Pavilion, the basketball stadium, where it was completely packed and hot. There were way too many moms wearing red, and from where I was sitting (nosebleed section, but close to the stage) I could see all of them. It was annoying, but whatever....
Anyway, back to the amazingness. I'm writing this many months after graduation actually happened (although it seems like it was only last weekend), so it's a bit hazy. They started out with the usual calling of names (video can be seen here), and I was glad to see that the entire group of bandsmen (except for one or two) had put a Cal Band sticker on their cap, and were all in line with each other. They were near the back, so it took a while to see them, but it was great to hear all their names at once.
Once the names were all called, there were many amazing speakers. Once that I will never forget, was a woman named Tiffany Shlain, who was a Cal Graduate that invented the Webbies, an awards ceremony for websites. One of my favorite quotes from her, which I found in an article I read about the ceremony, was that you gotta have "Moxie – a mixture of being bold, fearless and a little outrageous" to do the things that make a difference. I've been trying to do that to improve my own life, but at the same time, it can always be used to benefit others. She used this trait to start the Webbies, which began in a time when the internet was thought of as "nerdy". However, the Webbies took off and are now a serious Award given to awesome websites.
The other speaker that I will never forget, though I forget his name, was awarded for being an excellent student. He came from a background of not really being good at anything, and misbehaving, and generally not really on the right track in life. However, long story short, he came to Cal and was top in his class, and will be doing great things after graduation. I'm sure even now, he's having a great life :)
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