Adventures in Convocation I am now a university graduate! Yes, I got my BA from CBU this past year, and just a few days ago, it was all made official at convocation (which is a fancy word for ‘graduation’). The whole endeavor took about 3.5-4 hours, if you include all the stuff beforehand and... afterhand, which I do. Needless to say, it was a fairly long day. Not long and tedious, like high school graduation was (that was a sweaty, gross, red and white mess), just long in terms of standing around for a while. So, I did what any good article writer would do, and I wrote an article based on the very thing! And that’s what you are reading now. It’s like the Neverending Story. Only, more like the movie than the book, as this day has logic involved. Let’s begin!

We drove out at around 12:45 (me in my parents’ car, and Erin following us) right after I got back from getting my picture taken at Wal-Mart. I only got my picture taken then because I didn’t think my BED degree would be given to me here, but apparently it will, so I’ll have to go through this whole process again in 2 years. Sigh. Anyways, here we are driving!

And this is where we were headed! The Canada Games Complex at CBU. Actually, it’s where my family was headed - I had to go to the gym, to get ready to walk to the rink. The gym is the brown building; the rink is the green. The walk took about 15 minutes.

Fortunately, like Bert Raccoon, to avoid total boredom in the wait, I had some good friends to help me out. Namely, Brent and Doug. We all had to stand in our own lines (Brent in BBA, Doug in BA 3 year, and myself in BA major), so there was little chatting, but I would get bored and wander and find these guys. The Bullet was there too, but I totally forgot. Sorry Bullet.

So then we stood around....

... for a time that seemed much longer than it actually was. The preparation for this thing took about 11 seconds, and the rest was just waiting. Really though, this was the only painfully dull part of the whole thing. Which is why I took so many pictures of it! Now you can be bored too!

After a while, the profs showed up, and stood far away from us simple students. Actually, they looked kinda isolated and whatnot. I guess some people just aren’t friends with their profs like I always was. I dunno who any of them are, with the exception of Todd.

I dunno how this picture got mixed in. It’s clearly taken during Todd’s performance in the Elizabethan drama, “Ye Olde Hat.”

Soon after noticing the profs, it was time to go on our walk that really should have only taken about half a minute, but instead took about 25X that. Math! Part of the problem could have been the lack of passageways through the school, due to the poor planning in cleaning the place, blocking off most places because “the wax had to dry.” I’m sorry, btu it only takes like an hour or 2 for wax to dry - not all damn day! Geez.

Of course, this being an event taking place in Cape Breton, it had to be like ANY event on Cape Breton, so it had bagpipers. Luckily, I don’t hate bagpipers, so it wasn’t all that bag. They played for the whole walk and then some. Good times to be Scottish.

When we walked into the complex where the actual ceremony was taking place, I noticed that there was a theme to the whole event that was previously not mentioned to me. I wish I had known that we were having a Star Trek: TNG convocation! I would have gotten way more into it if I had! But yeah, they spared no detail here:

Viewer screens...

A re-enactment of that trial scene with Q from the series finale. A few too many people trying to be Q, but I think this thing was fairly last minute...

They even had a speech from Capt. Jean-Luc Picard himself! He told us to take our dreams and “make them so.” To “Klingon” to the “Data” we had gathered over the “light-years”, for they would truly help us “live long and prosper” when we went to see “X-Men 3" in a few weeks. Can’t blame the guy for plugging his new movie. Man, I wish that speech actually happened.

Some speeches that actually DID happen came from the Saluatroian (or whatever the hell it is) pictured above. I forget the guy’s name, but he did a good job.

And of course, one from the Valedictorian, who this year was Andrew MacDonald - a guy I have known for the past couple of years. He involved a triangle and, as you can see from the pic above, a kilt. But perhaps the proudest achievement of this is how well I aligned the pictures. Try it - they line up almost perfectly with one another. I’m wicked.

And here’s the proud moment for myself, Brent and the Bullet. Yup - we grow up so fast. We all joined Starfleet as cadets, but left as men. Star Trek.

After the ceremony was over, it was time to eat, which was an excellent plus as I hadn’t eaten yet that day having been rushed around all day run-on sentence. Don’t let the picture fool you though - there was actually very little actual food. Lots of appetizers (fruit slices, cheese, crackers, cookies, cake) but no actual food. Either way, I filled up pretty good. And I got a free t-shirt out of the deal, so whatever. Oh, and a degree. But ya can’t wear that. As easily.


After all the important stuff like getting out degrees and cookies were over, we had time to pose for pictures! The top row is the happy grads showing how much we rock. The bottom row is where Erin clothes-lined me in the mouth with a ceremony schedule. She really has it in for me these past few days. I dunno what’s up with that, really. Rage issues.

But all good days must come to and end, and all nice clothes must some day be returned. So that’s just what we did! You’d think they’d spring at least for the hood things for us to keep, but no. It all went back to Dal, where apparently it came from. How proud of CBU.

So now we are off, to face a bold new world. Thus far, I’ve been at the school at least 4 times a week since I finished my BA. It’s just easier that way.