Well everyone, after 4 and a half years, 9 total semesters, I am fully graduated. Boy, this was a journey. I had some really crazy classes, really fun adventures, and all sorts of fun and stress. You can look through the last 4 years of posts if you want to remember the fun. But this isn't a time to talk about all the old times, I already have. Today, I'm going to talk about the ending of it all.
Lets go back to the week before finals. This was when I had the last meetings of all my clubs. With my students for life club, we had a nice Christmas party where we listened to Christmas music, ate snack foods, made baby blankets to donate to the crisis pregnancy center that Brandi volunteered for, and were our overall goofy selves. I played Veggie Tales Christmas Silly Songs (Oh Santa and 8 Polish Foods Of Christmas) and Bob and Doug McKenzi's 12 Day of Christmas. Since we're like an unofficial Christian group (all the members just happen to be Catholic), everyone recognized the Veggie Tales songs, and then the older guys in the group thought Bob and Doug's 12 Days of Christmas was funny because of the "on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a beer." Good final time with them.
At my last filmmakers club meeting, I gave a going away speech as the last OG member. I gave a history of the club from the beginning, and how all the events impacted me and the group as a whole for better or worse. It was a really moving speech, and a great way to say fair well to the club that kept me from just being surrounded by engineers 24/7. At my Pokemon club we had a little pizza party, and I brought book marks for all the club members. These were official scholastic book fair Pokemon bookmarks my mom got to give to her students, but she said "no, my son and his Pokemon club will appreciate these more than my students," and they did. We played some Pokemon TCG, and then played smash bros and Pokemon Stadium. I dominated at the minigames, for the most part. There were some games where the input lag on the HDTV screwed me over, and I was like "I want a rematch, on a CRT. Lets go out to the smash players with their CRT's and play without input lag." Yeah, that's me. We didn't though, and I still won. Afterwards I tried selling some of my duplicate amiibo, but that failed. Oh well. Anyone want to buy Sonic new in box?
Finals pre-weekend I did what I always do, lock my self in my dorm and study like crazy. I did, for the most part. I only had 3 REAL finals considering that 1 final was a presentation (Tri-Z) and another was a guided discussion (Health and Wellness). Saturday I studied for Digital Logic, and Sunday I studied for Mechanics of Materials and History of the World. I probably should have divided them up more evenly since History and Mechanics were the harder subjects. Oh well. I ultimately did well in all my classes. My Tri-Z presentation went well, and I got my ISM challenge coin afterwards. That presentation was on Monday, my only test Monday. I did help my one friend study for digital logic on Monday. He somehow got a bootleg copy of the final from last year, and we studied off that. I helped him by showing him how to do those problems, and it helped me by having to teach the material.
On Tuesday I had Digital Logic and Health and Wellness finals. Digital Logic was one of the easiest tests I've ever taken. We had 2 hours to do the test. I was done in 45 minutes. It wasn't just because the test was almost identical to the one from the previous year, but because I was just so prepared. Boy, a 2000 level class is REALLY simple when you're used to 4000 (almost 5000) level classes. Then the discussion for Health and Wellness was really easy, just talk about the semester as a class. After the final some friends and I went to McDonald's to get Pokemon Happy Meals. Yeah, 3 college students, 1 a graduating senior, went to get Pokemon Happy Meals. We were a sight. It was great to hang out with them outside of a classroom setting. I'm going to keep in contact with them.
On Wednesday I had my Mechanics of Materials and World History finals. Mechanics I was confident, but kind of unjustly so, because I only knew about half of the stuff on it for sure, and the other half I kind of knew the general concept. Ultimately I think I did well enough considering that I got an A in the class. Whatever. In my history class I think I also did fairly well, even though I just kept cramming and cramming without much results. I went to the room an hour beforehand in hopes that it would keep me from getting distracted. It kind of did, but not really. I still got an A though. That night my friend since freshman year and I hung out to celebrate the end of finals and film a parody theme song for Pokemon based on engineering. I'll get that uploaded at the end of the week. Fun time.
Now for Thursday. On Thursday the only big thing was going to pick up my brother. He was getting a ride to about where my college was. OK, it was like 50 miles from my college, but closer than his college at the other end of the state. He and I did some packing, but mostly hung out. We watched a James Bond film until he passed out from exhaustion on my futon.
Friday is when the festivities really began. First of all I had to get my brother's ticket for graduation. I showed up to the ticket counter at about 9 AM, told them my name and how many tickets I needed, and then went on my way. My dad got up to my school around noon, and we were moving out my stuff. I was planning on checking out on Saturday, but because I didn't go through the necessary steps, I had to move out on Friday. Whoops. Oh well, we were able to get it all out and in the vehicles. Not long before I was all done my mom arrived after dropping my grandparents off at the hotel. She moved some things. After getting all my stuff out, I went through the procedure to check out and turn in my keys. I said bye to my dorm room of 2 and a half years. It was alright. After that we went to the hotel and picked up my grandparents for my honors college chord presentation. I graduated with honors and got honors chords to show it. There was a little ceremony where we were presented with our chords. It was a nice little ceremony, and my mom got to see the parents and grandparents of my one friend who is the cousin of one of her friends. It's a really small world. We met in calc 2, and by coincidence my mom found out that he's the cousin of some of her old college friends. Yeah, funny how life is. At the ceremony we have someone important to our college journey present us with our chords. I had my grandma give me my chords.
After the ceremony, we made our Christmas card photo with me in my graduation get-up and my parents and brother. After the picture, we went right to Costco to get them in so they would be ready the next day. However, since it was a really slow night, they said they would be ready in an hour. So we ordered our pizza and waited. For some reason this kid just walked up to me and started talking with me about Pokemon. I asked him "do I know you?" and he said "maybe, you look familiar." My mom found it very surreal since the kid dressed and acted like me at that age, and was very into Pokemon. I tried to be as uncreepy as possible, since he was like 10 years younger than me and I was a stranger, but I also didn't want to be all "go away kid." It was really weird.
On Saturday, it was the main event. It's all been leading up to this. I wake up, eat breakfast with my family, and get fully dressed for the occasion (freshly ironed gown, honors stole, 2 sets of honors chords, and hat with 2 tassels, one for my college and one for my university). We drive up to the auditorium to drop my grandparents and I off. I had to go check in. I found my way to the graduate area. After finding the right place for my college, I got my things and found a seat. I looked for friends to sit next to, but none of my friends had showed up yet. I'm really glad I brought my 3DS with me. After about 15 minutes one of my good college friends showed up. We talked for the other 15 minutes while we waited. Nothing super earth shattering, just some nerd small talk. I filled out the card for getting graduation pictures once those came around. All went well.
Well now it's time to march us out. I was expecting alphabetical order, but instead they called our names when we gave them the card with our names on it, which made it fun to sit next to friends, but hard to coordinate when to take snapshots of the event. I set-up a text to tell my brother to get ready when I was next. Before we walked into the auditorium I got my picture taken back stage. We walked out into the auditorium and got some speeches. They were nice speeches. The best was when the president of the university used the meme that surrounds him. It was great. I walk back stage, get in line, tell the people calling the names my name, and then walk out. I had my family cheer for me, shook hands with the university president while receiving my $100,000 piece of paper, shook hands with the dean of the engineering college while receiving my engineering challenge coin, shook hands with my professors that were there, and hug the lady that works in the admission office. It was great to walk. Afterwards I made some jokes to my friend, like when the president said "by the power vested in me by this institution, I now pronounce you graduates," when I leaned over and said "you may now kiss the diploma," and also when there was a 3rd "the third" I leaned over and said "that's the third third." Great ceromony.
So after the ceremony I was tasked with finding my family. I ran into the same friend that I filmed the engineer Pokemon parody with. He somehow got a ticket to see the graduation. I gave him a hug and thanked him for being there. In true style, he said "no problem bro, I'm glad I could be here." I found my family not to hard, and we took some pictures and went out to lunch. I invited my friend, and he came to say hi to my family, but he wasn't able to stay. My family liked him, and he liked them. At the restaurant he thanked me for the academic help and I thanked him for the "have some fun" help. Another friend to keep contact with. After lunch we went back to the hotel room and relaxed. I opened up my graduation cards later that evening.
Sunday was the last of the graduation festivities. We went to my student church, me dressed in my graduation get-up. Hey, I spent around $100 on this, so I'm going to get some wear out of it. I got recognized as a graduate as well as other graduates. After church we went to get some final pictures, basically recreating the ones I took as an incoming freshman, but with my cap and gown. After that I drove home, alone. The last thing of mentioning with regards to graduation is how I wore my cap and gown tor my other grandpa who wasn't able to make it to the graduation. He got to put my honors chords on me, and pull me around by them like a pack animal. Just some fun.
Man, this was crazy. It's weird knowing that I won't be going back to school at the end of my little break. Right now I'm working on fining a job, and my prospects seem OK.
Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
Showing posts with label students for life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label students for life. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Losing a Friend, a Difficult Blog to Write
Hey everyone, this is not an easy blog to write, and one I don't necessarily want to write, but to honor her memory, I must share this story.
So 1 week ago I lost my friend Brandi M. She was a wonderful person who was not afraid to stand up for what she believed in. We first met in Students for Life, she was our vice president, and an active member in the pro-life movement, having founded and leading the local Young Professionals For Life group in the local area of our college. With her activism in the Pro-Life movement, it is almost befitting that the last time I and others saw her was at our Students for Life meeting just last week. It is really crazy to think that just 1 week ago we were all hanging out, talking about the pro-life movement in our local area and in the big picture.
On Tuesday November 24th we had the visitation and on Wednesday November 25th we had the funeral. I unfortunately had bad information and missed the visitation. The obituary implied that the visitation would be at the church, and when I got there they were having bingo, definitely not visitation for my departed friend. After calling a string of friends I got some directions to the funeral home. I got lost on the way, and while I think I made it to the right funeral home in retrospect, there wasn't anything saying that this was the visitation for Brandi and there was like an example book out. I thought "I'm not going to crash someone else's visitation." I wish I had good information, but the visitation is not what is important, the funeral is.
On Wednesday I woke-up, packed up my stuff to drive home for Thanksgiving break, and left for the funeral. I met up with the old president of Students for Life (my first president, and I think Brandi's as well), and we sat together. Not to much time later, her best friend and former president she worked with along with the current president of Students for Life arrived. It was a very nice service. There were some good readings, stories of Brandi, remembering her final days, and the other good but hard stuff.
After the ceremony, some of the Students for Life members and alumni met up before heading to the cemetery. What was really nice was that the former president and vice president of College Republicans also made it. While Brandi wasn't active in College Republicans, she and the president of the time started going to meetings to try to build collaboration between the 2 conservative groups (in addition to hanging out with the members that were in both groups). It was great seeing them again, even under the circumstances. Another notable person to show up was the regional coordinator for students for life. He's been to our meetings a couple of times, and I'm sure he knew Brandi rather well. Neither the College Republicans nor the regional coordinator were able to make it to the cemetery, but it meant a lot to us student for life members to know that they both made it.
The funeral was hard enough, but the cemetery was even harder. All us Student for Life members and alumni gathered together and formed a group to say our final goodbyes. All of us laid our hands on the casket together, all the while crying over the loss of our dear friend. We were some of the last people to say our goodbyes. After we left the casket, we all stood off to the side and group hugged as we cried. After the group hug broke up, we hugged each other individually, just passing from one partner to another. We were the last people to get in our cars. No one talked except for her best friend saying "thank-you" after the group hug. We were quite a sight, like something out of a movie. As we were leaving the cemetery, someone had written "BRAND ANGEL" on a piece of plywood on the other side of the fence in the trailer park neighboring the cemetery. That was nice to see.
At the luncheon immediately following the cemetery I was able to talk to the friends I haven't seen in forever about what they have been up to. It was a good hour to help me get my head around what just we just experienced. I really needed that because I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me. I was glad I had that 3 hour drive ahead of me, because it gave me the time I needed to process everything that has happened. When driving home, I saw a bill board for pro-life activism, and that hit rather hard since she was so active in the pro-life movement. The world with not be the same without you Brandi, and we will all miss you.
Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
PS: If you would like to read about Brandi's journeys in the pro-life movement, you can read her blog here.
So 1 week ago I lost my friend Brandi M. She was a wonderful person who was not afraid to stand up for what she believed in. We first met in Students for Life, she was our vice president, and an active member in the pro-life movement, having founded and leading the local Young Professionals For Life group in the local area of our college. With her activism in the Pro-Life movement, it is almost befitting that the last time I and others saw her was at our Students for Life meeting just last week. It is really crazy to think that just 1 week ago we were all hanging out, talking about the pro-life movement in our local area and in the big picture.
On Tuesday November 24th we had the visitation and on Wednesday November 25th we had the funeral. I unfortunately had bad information and missed the visitation. The obituary implied that the visitation would be at the church, and when I got there they were having bingo, definitely not visitation for my departed friend. After calling a string of friends I got some directions to the funeral home. I got lost on the way, and while I think I made it to the right funeral home in retrospect, there wasn't anything saying that this was the visitation for Brandi and there was like an example book out. I thought "I'm not going to crash someone else's visitation." I wish I had good information, but the visitation is not what is important, the funeral is.
On Wednesday I woke-up, packed up my stuff to drive home for Thanksgiving break, and left for the funeral. I met up with the old president of Students for Life (my first president, and I think Brandi's as well), and we sat together. Not to much time later, her best friend and former president she worked with along with the current president of Students for Life arrived. It was a very nice service. There were some good readings, stories of Brandi, remembering her final days, and the other good but hard stuff.
After the ceremony, some of the Students for Life members and alumni met up before heading to the cemetery. What was really nice was that the former president and vice president of College Republicans also made it. While Brandi wasn't active in College Republicans, she and the president of the time started going to meetings to try to build collaboration between the 2 conservative groups (in addition to hanging out with the members that were in both groups). It was great seeing them again, even under the circumstances. Another notable person to show up was the regional coordinator for students for life. He's been to our meetings a couple of times, and I'm sure he knew Brandi rather well. Neither the College Republicans nor the regional coordinator were able to make it to the cemetery, but it meant a lot to us student for life members to know that they both made it.
The funeral was hard enough, but the cemetery was even harder. All us Student for Life members and alumni gathered together and formed a group to say our final goodbyes. All of us laid our hands on the casket together, all the while crying over the loss of our dear friend. We were some of the last people to say our goodbyes. After we left the casket, we all stood off to the side and group hugged as we cried. After the group hug broke up, we hugged each other individually, just passing from one partner to another. We were the last people to get in our cars. No one talked except for her best friend saying "thank-you" after the group hug. We were quite a sight, like something out of a movie. As we were leaving the cemetery, someone had written "BRAND ANGEL" on a piece of plywood on the other side of the fence in the trailer park neighboring the cemetery. That was nice to see.
At the luncheon immediately following the cemetery I was able to talk to the friends I haven't seen in forever about what they have been up to. It was a good hour to help me get my head around what just we just experienced. I really needed that because I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me. I was glad I had that 3 hour drive ahead of me, because it gave me the time I needed to process everything that has happened. When driving home, I saw a bill board for pro-life activism, and that hit rather hard since she was so active in the pro-life movement. The world with not be the same without you Brandi, and we will all miss you.
Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
PS: If you would like to read about Brandi's journeys in the pro-life movement, you can read her blog here.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
I meet MTV's Catelynn and Tyler
Hey everyone, it's things like this that keep me blogging. Today I got to meet MTV's Catelynn and Tyler from 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. Now unlike the Romney event where I found out last moment, I knew about this for a while, because the Pro-Life Group that I'm in are the ones who brought them to us at my college. I helped with promotion by chalking "Teen Mom's Catelynn and Tyler, 8:30 at [name of location with-held for privacy reasons.]" I also put up posters advertising the event. This was also a free event on a first come first serve basis, so remember that.
So now it's the big day. I was scheduled to help set up at 6:30, so I get there around 6:20 because that's just how I am. There is a GIANT line that stretched to the end of the foyer, and this is a big foyer. I get my clearance to enter the ballroom that it was being held in, and manage to get through the eager fans that were there at 5. It was kind of crazy. We set up by putting all the little information things on every chair, all 600 of them. Help set up when necessary, and play the waiting game. It's now 7PM and it's getting down the hall. I help one of the guys with the group that partnered with us to get some more things. I help him in finding the best rout to his car to get the stuff. Since we're mostly Christian we prayed thanking God for this wonderful blessing and the turnout. It's now 7:30 and we're told we need to start letting people in because they're starting to loop around the hallway. 600 seated and 50 standing, after that we need to start turning people away. If security hadn't shown up, one of the other group guys and I were going to be the men of authority saying "no more, sorry." Thankfully security did show up, but I was ready if they didn't.
Now we're letting everyone in. The flood gates were opened and people started just flowing in, but we had a system. Fill the rows, as far as we could. After that move on to the next row. Near the end of seating when there weren't many visible seats left, I was the one who did the whole "alright so we're trying to fill every seat, no more saving seats, if it's empty it's open." I'm just standing up there going "where's a seat? If there's an open seat next to you raise your hand. Lets see them. Oh! There's one. Right over there. Come on raise them high. ect." Good thing I'm the kind of person who would do that. I'm playing with the mic a little but nothing to notice able I hope. Keeping it professional while still having some fun with it. When doing that you kind of need to.
Now after everyone was seated, they had note cards to ask questions with. I was one of the people who went around and picked up the questions from people. Getting ready and stuff. Now that we're all set, time for the main event.
I gathered with the Students for life members. We were all just kind of standing in one area. Our group president gave the introduction saying who we as Students For Life were and what not. Then the guy from Bethany, the group we partnered with, talked about themselves a little, and introduced Dawn, the adoption coach for Catelynn and Tyler. Dawn talked about the adoption process and introduced the videos to remind everyone who Catelynn and Tyler were, or let people like me who have never watched either 16 and Pregnant nor Teen Mom, know who they are. It was cool since they had an abridged episode of the 16 and Pregnant episode that gave the MTV version. After that, Catelynn and Tyler came out. They told their story from their perspectives and answered questions. The same questions that were collected from the audience earlier. There were ones that were left out because they weren't appropriate for the event. This is about adoption and how it's good for the child, instead of being murdered, I'm sorry, "aborted." Questions about the TV show or whatever were left out, as well as duplicates or similar. They were really entertaining. Even for someone who didn't know who they were until today.
After the questions they stayed on stage for 2 minutes for pictures and high fives. No one was allowed on stage, but just so people could get the up close picture for their facebook to say "yeah I was there." Once "we will be on stage for 2 minutes for pictures" was said, everyone just flooded to the stage. Just fwoosh. After that Catelynn was escorted off and to the exit that wasn't the one everyone else used. I said "Thanks for coming" on her way out and she thanked me for having her. Tyler on the other hand went right into the crowd. Maybe separate himself so that they could sort of split the mob or something, but my guess is he might have just been soaking it up and fending for himself. Either way he drew some of the mob off of Catelynn, so there was some gentlemanlyness about it. Once he was on his way out I said "thanks for coming." He also said "thanks for having me." I helped clean up afterwards.
As I stated earlier, I've never seen either 16 and Pregnant nor Teen Mom. If I'm going to watch a reality show it's going to be educational like American Pickers or Pawn Stars, or about a Pawn Shop that's not to far away from my house. I'm also just wary of a show called "16 and Pregnant." Like is it promoting teen pregnancy or something. The concept just doesn't sit to well with me. After seeing Catelynn and Tyler, I'll definitely need to check out their episode. It's great that they're pro-life and that for them abortion wasn't an option for them. And I know people who have adopted and it's made their lives so much better. Definitely a great message from them at least.
Now I can't quite remember when in the setting up it happened, but since our group was putting it on, we were able to get a picture with Catelynn and Tyler. Here is the one that I got on my camera.
Sorry that it's not the best. I'll see if I can find one that's better since many were taken. Tyler's in the white hoodie, I'm next to him, kind of, in the bright yellow vest and Fedora, and Catelynn is on his right in the blue and yellow shirt. Here's a better one, but you can't see me as well.
I did get one with them with just me, but since my batteries were starting to fade, it flashed like it was taking, but didn't. Oh well. I was there, and with them in a picture. This was really cool. Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.
So now it's the big day. I was scheduled to help set up at 6:30, so I get there around 6:20 because that's just how I am. There is a GIANT line that stretched to the end of the foyer, and this is a big foyer. I get my clearance to enter the ballroom that it was being held in, and manage to get through the eager fans that were there at 5. It was kind of crazy. We set up by putting all the little information things on every chair, all 600 of them. Help set up when necessary, and play the waiting game. It's now 7PM and it's getting down the hall. I help one of the guys with the group that partnered with us to get some more things. I help him in finding the best rout to his car to get the stuff. Since we're mostly Christian we prayed thanking God for this wonderful blessing and the turnout. It's now 7:30 and we're told we need to start letting people in because they're starting to loop around the hallway. 600 seated and 50 standing, after that we need to start turning people away. If security hadn't shown up, one of the other group guys and I were going to be the men of authority saying "no more, sorry." Thankfully security did show up, but I was ready if they didn't.
Now we're letting everyone in. The flood gates were opened and people started just flowing in, but we had a system. Fill the rows, as far as we could. After that move on to the next row. Near the end of seating when there weren't many visible seats left, I was the one who did the whole "alright so we're trying to fill every seat, no more saving seats, if it's empty it's open." I'm just standing up there going "where's a seat? If there's an open seat next to you raise your hand. Lets see them. Oh! There's one. Right over there. Come on raise them high. ect." Good thing I'm the kind of person who would do that. I'm playing with the mic a little but nothing to notice able I hope. Keeping it professional while still having some fun with it. When doing that you kind of need to.
Now after everyone was seated, they had note cards to ask questions with. I was one of the people who went around and picked up the questions from people. Getting ready and stuff. Now that we're all set, time for the main event.
I gathered with the Students for life members. We were all just kind of standing in one area. Our group president gave the introduction saying who we as Students For Life were and what not. Then the guy from Bethany, the group we partnered with, talked about themselves a little, and introduced Dawn, the adoption coach for Catelynn and Tyler. Dawn talked about the adoption process and introduced the videos to remind everyone who Catelynn and Tyler were, or let people like me who have never watched either 16 and Pregnant nor Teen Mom, know who they are. It was cool since they had an abridged episode of the 16 and Pregnant episode that gave the MTV version. After that, Catelynn and Tyler came out. They told their story from their perspectives and answered questions. The same questions that were collected from the audience earlier. There were ones that were left out because they weren't appropriate for the event. This is about adoption and how it's good for the child, instead of being murdered, I'm sorry, "aborted." Questions about the TV show or whatever were left out, as well as duplicates or similar. They were really entertaining. Even for someone who didn't know who they were until today.
After the questions they stayed on stage for 2 minutes for pictures and high fives. No one was allowed on stage, but just so people could get the up close picture for their facebook to say "yeah I was there." Once "we will be on stage for 2 minutes for pictures" was said, everyone just flooded to the stage. Just fwoosh. After that Catelynn was escorted off and to the exit that wasn't the one everyone else used. I said "Thanks for coming" on her way out and she thanked me for having her. Tyler on the other hand went right into the crowd. Maybe separate himself so that they could sort of split the mob or something, but my guess is he might have just been soaking it up and fending for himself. Either way he drew some of the mob off of Catelynn, so there was some gentlemanlyness about it. Once he was on his way out I said "thanks for coming." He also said "thanks for having me." I helped clean up afterwards.
As I stated earlier, I've never seen either 16 and Pregnant nor Teen Mom. If I'm going to watch a reality show it's going to be educational like American Pickers or Pawn Stars, or about a Pawn Shop that's not to far away from my house. I'm also just wary of a show called "16 and Pregnant." Like is it promoting teen pregnancy or something. The concept just doesn't sit to well with me. After seeing Catelynn and Tyler, I'll definitely need to check out their episode. It's great that they're pro-life and that for them abortion wasn't an option for them. And I know people who have adopted and it's made their lives so much better. Definitely a great message from them at least.
Now I can't quite remember when in the setting up it happened, but since our group was putting it on, we were able to get a picture with Catelynn and Tyler. Here is the one that I got on my camera.
I did get one with them with just me, but since my batteries were starting to fade, it flashed like it was taking, but didn't. Oh well. I was there, and with them in a picture. This was really cool. Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.
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