Wasn't That a Party?

Hello everyone who has read my blog over the past years. My mother directed me to write in here one last time and document the St. Francis Xavier graduation experience. (X-perience?) So here it is: Graduation, STFX style.

So firstly, if you haven't graduated from STFX yet and are supposed to, DO attend all the events available. Even the church thing. It was pretty cool, although I'm not allowed to talk about it because it was SUPER TOP SECRET! (Kidding, but there were some definite 'cult' vibes going on.)
On grad weekend, the town of Antigonish takes the chip off it's shoulder for a little while and says:
...yeah, it might be that they're just happy to see us go, but I like to think that they are just being nice. Nishers are a polite bunch.

The Ceremony took place in the Keating Millennium Centre. It wasn't as swanky as it had been during the X-ring ceremony, but at least everyone was allowed in this time.
Before we (the graduates) entered the room, there was about an hour of practice walking. I suppose it says a lot about having an Arts of Business degree when the people giving you said degree don't even trust your ability to walk in a line.
There I am, getting my degree. I wish I had something nice to say about how all the hard work was worth it or whatever, but I actually still feel like I'm going back next year. It hasn't all really set in yet. Our Dean of Arts, Stephen Baldner is the man at the podium, Bishop Leahy is behind me, and Sean Riley (STFX President, in case you're not from the maritimes) is the man shaking my hand.
During the ceremony there were some great speeches, like the one from Sean Riley or our class speaker, Dan Coles' speech. Also memorable was the bizarrely earnest request from the Alumni representative to 'test the network'. I swear that we're the real-life Stonecutters. Can the network find me a job?
Me and my degree. Aside from my name and the name of my program, it's entirely in Latin, which means that it theoretically could say "we know you stayed up until 5AM writing last-minute papers and you kinda don't deserve this." It's also now in a frame at my mom's house. Apparently she bought it on some sort of installment plan. But it was just as cool as you think it would be to hold a real university degree with my name on it that I earned.

Here's 'the gang' all happy about getting their degrees and whatnot. Those in brown hoods are the slackers who took Business degrees. (Kidding...they're both quite hardworking and employable.) From the left are Ali, Marc, Jon, Glenn, Jamie, Nick, Me, Lauren and Grant.
I chose this picture out of the 5,000 others that my father took because we're all laughing. This is how everyone looks in most of my memories anyway. Jon's geeky chuckle, Nick's full-out laughing face with teeth and everything, Jamie's squinty laugh...Grant's obviously making a smartass comment...yep- everything is as it should be.
Anyway, most of us headed out from there to the Poli-sci social held on the 5th floor of Nicholson Hall tower. My family went there briefly, then headed out to the infamous Lobster Dinner!

Here are Katie and Tori, subtly informing everyone in the meal hall that we are tourists from Ontario. And that myspace pictures never go out of style.
Anyway, I give the lobster dinner a thumbs down, as it was filled with mostly nouveau-riche families from away. Which is cool, I guess, but not very maritime-y. And since a lot of my friends and experience here has been very Nova Scotian, I didn't really know anyone there and was a little out of place. But it was all worth it to see my dad attempt to eat the lobster. Hasn't quite mastered the art yet.

And then there was the afterparty...

It started with the Gala featuring Signal Hill. We hadn't ever had the opportunity to see Signal Hill at St.FX, so it was a lucky coincidence that they agreed to FINALLY play at our school for my graduation. I thought to myself "wow...I wish they could have played at every single event since I started at X." Oh well.
They were amazing though, despite an awkward moment at the beginning when the lead singer attempted a singalong when there were only two people in the main audience. He just laughed and said "too soon?". Jon and I got to dance to Sonny's Dream, as usual. Towards the end of the night, as they started to break out the classics, we began the long-standing tradition of singing in a circle. Jamie did his singing fist-pump to make it official.
...he takes singing VERY seriously. And of course, what would a STFX grad night be without Sean Riley rockin' out acoustically with the band?
No one enjoyed this more than my mother.

Afterwards, at about 2AM, they had a party for the students only, then a sunrise breakfast around 4AM. It was a fitting end to the four years, since I basically lived off of SUB breakfasts. The details of these two events are sketchy, however.

All I know is that I woke up at 11AMish and my lovely family had packed up most of my house for me. It was a really great four years, and I wish I had documented more of it, for my own entertainment. Anyway, I suppose it's on to the next big adventure.