Sunday, June 04, 2006
[So I’m finally getting to this entry]
What a final week as a Wahoo. (This was 2 weeks ago)
What a week it was, going to the beach in Duck, NC with some awesome Wesley folk, hopefully not for the last time. I drove down to Duck with J-dub in his car. Fortunately we were using his, there's no knowing whether or not my ol' Toyota would have made it down the whole way. Well it probably would have, considering I had a five hour trip from Charlottesville to DE in that old bugger! But better safe than sorry.
It was an awesome last week as a student... all my finals completed, and for the first time as a UVA student since my first semester, my GPA actually went up instead of down! :P
We spent the first two days or so uneventfully in terms of the actual beach. Our house was in a different location in Duck than it had been the previous 2 years, and we actually had to walk down the street to get to the beach! Shocking, huh? And the weather in all its glory made sure that we wouldn't attempt to go down there... we had some pretty impressive lightning storms the first two days. Grant said that he saw lightning strike a tree that was pretty close to our house, and then later on we all so a flash so bright we thought someone had taken a picture 0f us inside the house... at least until we heard the thunderclap.
So our first couple of days were spent indoors. We spent it eating many of the snacks that I bought with the $200 plus dollars (!) that I had "saved" 'til the end of the year! You wouldn't believe how much stuff we raided from the UVA snack store, Crossroads (not to be confused with our residence). Aaron and I went there one night, filled up a 3-foot long box, and it only used up half of the plus dollars that night :P
Our first few days we spent with the pool table and with cards. Playing pool as a video game doesn't help you very much in terms of playing actual pool! For the first time ever, I played Texas Hold'em, it's a neat version of poker. The first time I played it I got creamed, but the next day I did much better, eventually losing to Diane's boyfriend Raul. And of course, there were spades. Playing spades on the computer did pay off, as Chris Gibson and I beat Geoff and Ernie in a thriller, after we were up big but they came close to a comeback with a successful blind nil.
When the weather permitted we got onto the beach. The guys and I went out to the beach to play football, playing some 4-on-4. Playing football on the beach is fun although it's difficult to cover people when you're always slipping in the sand!
Later on in the week the sun decided to come out and we got to enjoy some time on the beach. Trying to take a dip into the ocean.... uh, yeah. Just a bit too cold (Sarcasm) and also there was a big hole you fell into once you got about 15-20 feet in to the ocean. Strong currents too.
The pool and the hot tub were much more to our liking. Well, the hot tub anyway. Diane and Raul tried to push each other into the pool after realizing how chilly it was. :P
The hot tub is always a beach week favorite. See pictures for details!
Jimbo and Beth asked me one night in the hot tub whether or not I was considering graduate school, aka "putting the real world off for 5 more years or so". Sadly I don't think that's in my future at this point... getting through the last year and a half has been so hard with the defective esophagus and all... I think I'm done with school for the moment.
Beach week had some great moments and some sad ones as well.
- Seeing a lot of Wesley friends for possibly the last time
- Watching Jimbo kick everyone's ass at pool when he's had a couple beers
- Trying to cover Alex Chapin in football seeing as he's a head taller than me
- Getting a tan (and burn) on the beach with the whole crew
- Watching a Family Guy marathon with Geoff, Aaron, J-Dub, and whoever else would watch
- Playing DDR and watching everyone else dance (or fall) to the moves in the game
- Watching the other guys play Tiger Woods golf against each other.
- Playing miniature golf well for 15 holes before shooting myself in the foot, screwing up on the last 3
- Listening to Chris (Lewis)'s famous one-liners one last time
- Being one of the major photographers of the group one last time
- Jumping in the pool late at night with Rachel Redfern, maybe the only ex-Bando at the beach who wasn't at "Happy Starfish" (the band house)
- The hot tub with everyone
- The hot tub with everyone (yes I did mean to write it a second time)
- Getting my finger jammed trying to catch one of Geoff's football passes (the man has an arm.)
- Seeing Aaron fall on a baby cactus after Matt bullrushed him playing football on the grass.
- Seeing J-Dub catch a football, the man who "doesn't understand American sports."
- Watching some of the best NBA playoff series in a long time with Geoff and Kristen (sadly the Pistons still won the series, arrgghh)
- Eating a seafood pizza!
And so was my last beach week as an undergrad.
Saturday, my folks came in and we went to valedictory exercises, where the class gift is presented. Our class of 2006 gave an unprecedented amount back to the University :)
The speaker, novelist Tom Wolfe gave a speech that was, well, interesting. I felt that he rambled more than anything and wasn't sure what he was trying to say to us. He talked about figures of the past that had such a huge impact on the history of humanity and the views of mankind... Jesus, John Calvin, and Darwin... such contrasting themes ranging from "quest for salvation" to "get salvation ten minutes from now" to "you're all beasts!" Apparently Wolfe's theme was to "go for it" in the end. I think.
That evening, we had the baccalaureate service at the Wesley Foundation, where we met the families of all the graduates. Those of us graduating... myself, J-dub, Kris, Chris, Keelah, and David Vaughan (again) found what it was like to have our 15 minutes of fame. Picture after picture after picture! We probably lost some vision cells in the process :P
My mom gave a speech at the service on the views of the Foundation from a parent's point of view. The central theme of her speech was "cookies", how I was first introduced to the Foundation when Lisa Hovey came on move-in day my first year to deliver cookies to my roommate, and how I had to "make time" for my folks when they came down for my birthday and I was busy with a massive cookie bake to raise funds from the spring mission trip. My parents are grateful that I found a place like the Foundation, and I'm grateful that I found a place like the Foundation to learn about Christianity and spirituality during my four years here. Kris Worley gave a speech afterwards, talking about how she came to understand something said to her when she first arrived at the Foundation, someone told her they saw God "in her eyes".
At the end of the service, we all laid hands on each other to wish each other farewell, took some more pictures, had a candle vigil around the sanctuary of Wesley Memorial as Andrew and Grant played music on their guitars, and we parted ways one last time.
On my way out, I ran into another friend Lauren Rush, horn player and roommate of Keelah in the Moosetrap. I was glad to see her one last time, seeing as how band was a big part of my life my 3rd year. I asked her if she was doing band next year ... of course she is!
I went back to Crossroads that night, and then Geoff and I took one last trip to Little John's. We noticed a huge gathering of cars in the parking lot next to the lawn... my guess is that everyone was going streaking the night before graduation. I guess that's something that won't be part of my legacy, at least not as a student. The closest thing in my legacy will remain streaking a beach in Nags Head my first year with the SOTLites. Perhaps one day I'll go back and streak the lawn with someone, if I can ever run well again!
And then finally, Sunday, there was graduation. Eh, that's not that eventful. :P Yeah right. What can I say about graduation? The culmination of four years of education at a fine university? (Yes, I’m rambling) It was pretty incredible. After attempting to drive closer to the lawn I realized that all parking lots were reserved (I probably should have guessed that) so drove back to Crossroads and “quickly” went over to the Lawn to gather behind the Rotunda with all the other graduating college students. Turned out it wasn’t that necessary to hurry, as we got started late! But when I arrived there I ran into some people that I hadn’t seen in a really long time! It’s true, graduation may be the one time you see everyone who is actually in your graduating class!!
At the baccalaureate service the night before graduation my mom’s speech mentioned a previous entry from my blog in which I mentioned that I had to do “Hala’s play”. She had no idea what that meant, as she claimed in the speech, “Eddie doesn’t share.” :P Well, Hala’s a girl who I met one day my second year when I was leaving the drama building after my acting class. I was walking back to lambeth and she had asked me if I would act in a scene she was doing for a directing class she was in. Of course I agreed (I can’t say no to a pretty face J)
Well, when I got to the Rotunda, there she was! I gave her a big hug and we said congrats to each other, and I managed to squeeze in a picture. She said, “Put it up on Facebook!” (it currently is!) Then she left to go get tickets for other members of her family.
After that I ran into two old friends, Jacquie and Louise. Jacquie is a girl who I knew from my climatology class last year, who was graduating with a distinguished major in Environmental Science. Louise I knew from chemistry my first year. She is looking to get into medical school one of these days so she claims she is currently “jobless” like me. L Anyway, we exchanged congratulations and took a great deal of pictures (after looking at all these, my folks now say I’m a ladies man… yeah right)
Eventually the procession began and the class of ’06 was told to get into eight lines…. alphabetically (well that last part was a joke… hehe we had trouble getting into eight lines!) We walked up the back steps of the Rotunda, around, and stepped onto the Lawn for our farewell march. Many had pink flamingoes and balloons so their families could identify them. My parents were far enough away from the crowd that they saw the procession on a big screen, although they claim they didn’t see me in the crowd. After an hour of processing, all the graduates were seated at the front of the lawn to hear a speech by Governor Tim Kaine. He mentioned in his speech that he doesn’t remember any speeches he’s given or heard in the past so he doesn’t expect us to remember any of what he said! (That’s good because I don’t remember much of it) But it was a nice farewell and congratulations to all the grads.
After the “large” ceremony all the grads left the lawn to their diploma ceremonies. The math ceremony was located in Pavilion I off the left side of the Rotunda. I met up with friend and fellow math graduate Kristina, and once again, more congratulations and pictures! Geoff, Kristen, and Grant were all there to say congratulations, what great people! Well actually Grant was there because Katie was getting her master’s degree (wink) The ceremony for the math graduates was very interesting as Professors Herbst and Kriete went through some individual awards…. A 16 year old was graduating with a master’s degree!!
Finally, we all went up one by one and received our degrees, and everyone laughed as we turned in various directions so that family members could take photos of us receiving the degree. Then group pictures of the bachelor’s, masters, and PhD candidates were taken, and I went and hugged my financial math project partner, Uliana, who received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree that day.
And that’s about it for the ceremony. I guess now I’m officially an alum! Wahoo-Wa!
What a final week as a Wahoo. (This was 2 weeks ago)
What a week it was, going to the beach in Duck, NC with some awesome Wesley folk, hopefully not for the last time. I drove down to Duck with J-dub in his car. Fortunately we were using his, there's no knowing whether or not my ol' Toyota would have made it down the whole way. Well it probably would have, considering I had a five hour trip from Charlottesville to DE in that old bugger! But better safe than sorry.
It was an awesome last week as a student... all my finals completed, and for the first time as a UVA student since my first semester, my GPA actually went up instead of down! :P
We spent the first two days or so uneventfully in terms of the actual beach. Our house was in a different location in Duck than it had been the previous 2 years, and we actually had to walk down the street to get to the beach! Shocking, huh? And the weather in all its glory made sure that we wouldn't attempt to go down there... we had some pretty impressive lightning storms the first two days. Grant said that he saw lightning strike a tree that was pretty close to our house, and then later on we all so a flash so bright we thought someone had taken a picture 0f us inside the house... at least until we heard the thunderclap.
So our first couple of days were spent indoors. We spent it eating many of the snacks that I bought with the $200 plus dollars (!) that I had "saved" 'til the end of the year! You wouldn't believe how much stuff we raided from the UVA snack store, Crossroads (not to be confused with our residence). Aaron and I went there one night, filled up a 3-foot long box, and it only used up half of the plus dollars that night :P
Our first few days we spent with the pool table and with cards. Playing pool as a video game doesn't help you very much in terms of playing actual pool! For the first time ever, I played Texas Hold'em, it's a neat version of poker. The first time I played it I got creamed, but the next day I did much better, eventually losing to Diane's boyfriend Raul. And of course, there were spades. Playing spades on the computer did pay off, as Chris Gibson and I beat Geoff and Ernie in a thriller, after we were up big but they came close to a comeback with a successful blind nil.
When the weather permitted we got onto the beach. The guys and I went out to the beach to play football, playing some 4-on-4. Playing football on the beach is fun although it's difficult to cover people when you're always slipping in the sand!
Later on in the week the sun decided to come out and we got to enjoy some time on the beach. Trying to take a dip into the ocean.... uh, yeah. Just a bit too cold (Sarcasm) and also there was a big hole you fell into once you got about 15-20 feet in to the ocean. Strong currents too.
The pool and the hot tub were much more to our liking. Well, the hot tub anyway. Diane and Raul tried to push each other into the pool after realizing how chilly it was. :P
The hot tub is always a beach week favorite. See pictures for details!
Jimbo and Beth asked me one night in the hot tub whether or not I was considering graduate school, aka "putting the real world off for 5 more years or so". Sadly I don't think that's in my future at this point... getting through the last year and a half has been so hard with the defective esophagus and all... I think I'm done with school for the moment.
Beach week had some great moments and some sad ones as well.
- Seeing a lot of Wesley friends for possibly the last time
- Watching Jimbo kick everyone's ass at pool when he's had a couple beers
- Trying to cover Alex Chapin in football seeing as he's a head taller than me
- Getting a tan (and burn) on the beach with the whole crew
- Watching a Family Guy marathon with Geoff, Aaron, J-Dub, and whoever else would watch
- Playing DDR and watching everyone else dance (or fall) to the moves in the game
- Watching the other guys play Tiger Woods golf against each other.
- Playing miniature golf well for 15 holes before shooting myself in the foot, screwing up on the last 3
- Listening to Chris (Lewis)'s famous one-liners one last time
- Being one of the major photographers of the group one last time
- Jumping in the pool late at night with Rachel Redfern, maybe the only ex-Bando at the beach who wasn't at "Happy Starfish" (the band house)
- The hot tub with everyone
- The hot tub with everyone (yes I did mean to write it a second time)
- Getting my finger jammed trying to catch one of Geoff's football passes (the man has an arm.)
- Seeing Aaron fall on a baby cactus after Matt bullrushed him playing football on the grass.
- Seeing J-Dub catch a football, the man who "doesn't understand American sports."
- Watching some of the best NBA playoff series in a long time with Geoff and Kristen (sadly the Pistons still won the series, arrgghh)
- Eating a seafood pizza!
And so was my last beach week as an undergrad.
Saturday, my folks came in and we went to valedictory exercises, where the class gift is presented. Our class of 2006 gave an unprecedented amount back to the University :)
The speaker, novelist Tom Wolfe gave a speech that was, well, interesting. I felt that he rambled more than anything and wasn't sure what he was trying to say to us. He talked about figures of the past that had such a huge impact on the history of humanity and the views of mankind... Jesus, John Calvin, and Darwin... such contrasting themes ranging from "quest for salvation" to "get salvation ten minutes from now" to "you're all beasts!" Apparently Wolfe's theme was to "go for it" in the end. I think.
That evening, we had the baccalaureate service at the Wesley Foundation, where we met the families of all the graduates. Those of us graduating... myself, J-dub, Kris, Chris, Keelah, and David Vaughan (again) found what it was like to have our 15 minutes of fame. Picture after picture after picture! We probably lost some vision cells in the process :P
My mom gave a speech at the service on the views of the Foundation from a parent's point of view. The central theme of her speech was "cookies", how I was first introduced to the Foundation when Lisa Hovey came on move-in day my first year to deliver cookies to my roommate, and how I had to "make time" for my folks when they came down for my birthday and I was busy with a massive cookie bake to raise funds from the spring mission trip. My parents are grateful that I found a place like the Foundation, and I'm grateful that I found a place like the Foundation to learn about Christianity and spirituality during my four years here. Kris Worley gave a speech afterwards, talking about how she came to understand something said to her when she first arrived at the Foundation, someone told her they saw God "in her eyes".
At the end of the service, we all laid hands on each other to wish each other farewell, took some more pictures, had a candle vigil around the sanctuary of Wesley Memorial as Andrew and Grant played music on their guitars, and we parted ways one last time.
On my way out, I ran into another friend Lauren Rush, horn player and roommate of Keelah in the Moosetrap. I was glad to see her one last time, seeing as how band was a big part of my life my 3rd year. I asked her if she was doing band next year ... of course she is!
I went back to Crossroads that night, and then Geoff and I took one last trip to Little John's. We noticed a huge gathering of cars in the parking lot next to the lawn... my guess is that everyone was going streaking the night before graduation. I guess that's something that won't be part of my legacy, at least not as a student. The closest thing in my legacy will remain streaking a beach in Nags Head my first year with the SOTLites. Perhaps one day I'll go back and streak the lawn with someone, if I can ever run well again!
And then finally, Sunday, there was graduation. Eh, that's not that eventful. :P Yeah right. What can I say about graduation? The culmination of four years of education at a fine university? (Yes, I’m rambling) It was pretty incredible. After attempting to drive closer to the lawn I realized that all parking lots were reserved (I probably should have guessed that) so drove back to Crossroads and “quickly” went over to the Lawn to gather behind the Rotunda with all the other graduating college students. Turned out it wasn’t that necessary to hurry, as we got started late! But when I arrived there I ran into some people that I hadn’t seen in a really long time! It’s true, graduation may be the one time you see everyone who is actually in your graduating class!!
At the baccalaureate service the night before graduation my mom’s speech mentioned a previous entry from my blog in which I mentioned that I had to do “Hala’s play”. She had no idea what that meant, as she claimed in the speech, “Eddie doesn’t share.” :P Well, Hala’s a girl who I met one day my second year when I was leaving the drama building after my acting class. I was walking back to lambeth and she had asked me if I would act in a scene she was doing for a directing class she was in. Of course I agreed (I can’t say no to a pretty face J)
Well, when I got to the Rotunda, there she was! I gave her a big hug and we said congrats to each other, and I managed to squeeze in a picture. She said, “Put it up on Facebook!” (it currently is!) Then she left to go get tickets for other members of her family.
After that I ran into two old friends, Jacquie and Louise. Jacquie is a girl who I knew from my climatology class last year, who was graduating with a distinguished major in Environmental Science. Louise I knew from chemistry my first year. She is looking to get into medical school one of these days so she claims she is currently “jobless” like me. L Anyway, we exchanged congratulations and took a great deal of pictures (after looking at all these, my folks now say I’m a ladies man… yeah right)
Eventually the procession began and the class of ’06 was told to get into eight lines…. alphabetically (well that last part was a joke… hehe we had trouble getting into eight lines!) We walked up the back steps of the Rotunda, around, and stepped onto the Lawn for our farewell march. Many had pink flamingoes and balloons so their families could identify them. My parents were far enough away from the crowd that they saw the procession on a big screen, although they claim they didn’t see me in the crowd. After an hour of processing, all the graduates were seated at the front of the lawn to hear a speech by Governor Tim Kaine. He mentioned in his speech that he doesn’t remember any speeches he’s given or heard in the past so he doesn’t expect us to remember any of what he said! (That’s good because I don’t remember much of it) But it was a nice farewell and congratulations to all the grads.
After the “large” ceremony all the grads left the lawn to their diploma ceremonies. The math ceremony was located in Pavilion I off the left side of the Rotunda. I met up with friend and fellow math graduate Kristina, and once again, more congratulations and pictures! Geoff, Kristen, and Grant were all there to say congratulations, what great people! Well actually Grant was there because Katie was getting her master’s degree (wink) The ceremony for the math graduates was very interesting as Professors Herbst and Kriete went through some individual awards…. A 16 year old was graduating with a master’s degree!!
Finally, we all went up one by one and received our degrees, and everyone laughed as we turned in various directions so that family members could take photos of us receiving the degree. Then group pictures of the bachelor’s, masters, and PhD candidates were taken, and I went and hugged my financial math project partner, Uliana, who received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree that day.
And that’s about it for the ceremony. I guess now I’m officially an alum! Wahoo-Wa!
