Friday, August 07, 2009

All Good Things Must End...or Morph

I learned stuff at Stanford. So much stuff my brain is in shock. One thing I learned is that trying to maintain a blog about going to Stanford AND trying to get the best grades possible are mutually exclusive endeavors. At least, for me.

Graduation was amazing. My husband was right there cheering me on, along with all four of my grown sons. They loved the Stanford campus, especially the Cantor Museum. Here are my oldest (far left) and youngest (far right) conferring with a guy named David in the modern art wing. (David is a sculpture.)

When the big day came it was all just a blur. I found out 48 hours prior that I was graduating with distinction. Not only did I not know that, I had to ask someone what it meant. My GPA put me in the top 15% of my class. Who knew?

The hoopla in the stadium was fun; I got a lot of cheers when I carried in my "How do you like me now?" sign. Then we all sat through what was arguably the worst commencement speech EVER. Justice Kennedy was rambly, monotone, redundant, and didn't seem to understand the purpose of a university commencement speech. You know: Good job! You rock! Go out there and change the world! You can do it! The Class of '09 got some mumbly, cranky bit about taking law to the world. Please don't ask what that means, because no one around me knew. The girl to my left was doodling on her program: "Take away message from commencement: Law=Good."

Then we adjourned to Memorial Church for the English Department degree conferral ceremony, where I got to get up in the brass angel pulpit and give the undergraduate commencement address. It was the most exciting conclusion to my Stanford adventure that I could have ever imagined, and I am still getting email about my speech--take that, Justice Kennedy!

So, now I'm home, and it's great. And I really miss Stanford. It was quite a ride. Stay tuned.

Carla Baku, '09