In my final days speaking my mother tongue before shipping off to Central America have been spent scrambling to finish a couple stories (decorative pillows = bane of my existence), packing up a few things, and participating in a faux-duation or mock-duation....
See my grad school holds graduations twice a year, even though people are finishing each quarter. My designated time to walk was in the Spring, three months before I actually finished. The same was true for several of my colleagues so we decided to ask the Assistant Dean to host a mini ceremony. So on Saturday, several of us trucked out to the burbs to drink some wine and walk across her deck.
The whole idea was a little strange, but when we pulled up and saw purple balloons tied to her car (school colors), we realized she had a good sense of humor about the whole thing. She had draped her tables in purple plastic tablecloths, bought purple spoons and cups and hung a giant "Congratulations" sign in her living room.
After being one of only three silly enough to walk across the deck, shake the dean's hand while holding a purple cup of wine in the other, and then drink a champagne toast to J-school, it finally felt official. Still no job, but at least now I really graduated.
(We also had a chance to sit down with one of the professors and, with wine-induced and new-graduate honesty, tell him just how we think they should change the school. With a new dean coming in, all seem a bit anxious about impending transformations - the ever-present fears of selling out and tainting the media with the business side surfacing. We did advice him that to avoid bad press, they should fully involve the alumni in the process - we've all seen how that listserv can run amok when the alumni see danger. More on that as the process gets underway, I'm sure.)
I leave on Wednesday. We have shortened our five weeks of classes to three immersed weeks and two weeks of traveling. I am nervous about again heading to a country where I don't really speak the language, knowing the isolation and frustration that brings. However, I will be with friends, and I am trying to keep my wits about me - remembering that this is an adventure, it's only five weeks, the Spanish skills will come rushing back.
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3 comments:
It was the best faux ceremony I've ever participated in. (although thank God there was nothing faux about that champagne.)
i am jealous.
have fun.
Have a lovely time in Honduras dear.
Did you tell them to start helping us not get almost killed? That might be a good start. If you didn't I'm sure CK may have...
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